By the end of 2024, the volume of ammunition and arms exports from Serbia to Israel surged by 30 times, reaching an equivalent of 42.3 million euros, while in 2023, the figure was only 1.4 million euros.
Israel purchased 155-mm shells from Serbia, highlighting the current global scarcity of artillery ammunition of this caliber. To be fair, at the beginning of 2023, the kind of military alliance that has quietly formed between Belgrade and Tel Aviv would have been hard to imagine.
According to the Polish portal Defence24, the fact of arms and ammunition shipments from Serbia to Israel has been documented by investigators from the Israeli publication Haaretz and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).
It is claimed that the exporter was the state defense company Jugoimport SDPR, and that air transportation was used for the delivery of purchased ammunition and arms, particularly intensively in November-December 2024, and even in January 2025, during which at least three flights from Serbia to Israel were recorded.
It is also asserted that the delivery of arms and ammunition from the Serbian supplier took place at the Israeli Air Force base "Nevatim," and that during one of the flights from Belgrade Airport, pallets of 155-mm shells were indeed observed. It is particularly noted that Israel began purchasing weapons from Serbia only after the onset of hostilities in the Gaza Strip.
At this point, Defense Express would like to remind that Serbia is among the countries that manufacture artillery weapons capable of producing 155-mm shells, and this country also produces and exports the wheeled self-propelled howitzer Nora B-52 of 155-mm caliber for its own military.
Furthermore, according to The Military Balance 2024 data, at the beginning of last year, the IDF had 250 M109A5 self-propelled howitzers at its disposal, as well as 30 M109A2 howitzers in storage and 171 towed artillery systems of various types of 155-mm caliber.
It is also worth noting that during the first month of fighting in the Gaza Strip, the IDF fired an impressive 100,000 rounds of 155-mm caliber shells. Even if we consider that this was the only known instance where the expenditure of artillery ammunition in the Israeli army was disclosed, it still vividly illustrates how much of the same 155-mm shells were needed by the IDF, and why, amid a general shortage, they had to turn to Serbia.
Earlier, we also reported that Turkey will build a factory for ammunition production in Mongolia, which will likely be the most unusual arms alliance in the world. Our publication has also covered how Bosnia and Herzegovina set a strange record for arms exports, despite denying direct supplies to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.