On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of existence and operation of “Teleoptik Gyroscopes”, the Ministry of Defense awarded the company with a Plaque, which was presented at today’s ceremony by the Assistant Minister of Defense, Nenad Miloradović PhD, to the Acting Director Zoran Jarić.
On this day, April 22, 1922, exactly one century ago, the “First Yugoslav Factory for Telephony, Optics and Precision Mechanics” was founded – nowadays “Teleoptik-Gyroscopes” – and represented the beginning of a completely new industrial branch in this region – the precision mechanics industry, as a branch of the metal industry.
The first success was recorded in the production of optical and precision mechanical instruments, and the real breakthrough in the domestic market occurred with the development of air transport. The intensive progress of aviation was directly conditioned by the progress of the domestic aviation industry, when just five years after its foundation, the production of instruments and devices for aviation began – tachometers, pressure gauges, speedometers and many others.
In parallel with this production of instruments, the factory launched an educational mission, educating the missing qualified personnel for the precision mechanical trade.
Successful business operations prompted thoughts of changing the company’s name when it entered the market in 1937 under the name “Teleoptik”.
After the end of World War II, “Teleoptik” was placed under military control, and in 1946 it was nationalized. The range was expanded by the production of tools for many complex technological processes, mainly for the needs of the military industry and the Yugoslav People’s Army.
In the 1950s, a specialized school for the education of technicians for the aviation industry was founded, and during the second half of the century, “Teleoptik” continuously expanded its production capacities. The dedicated part of “Teleoptik-Gyroscope” was created within the factory complex and separated as a separate company in 1975. The headquarters of that company is still present today.
In the same period, the peak of business was reached when the Yugoslav state recognized the importance and need for the production of new weapons systems, “Teleoptik” produced key components for the most modern anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles at the time.
“Teleoptik” significantly influenced the development of Zemun in the post-war years. It expanded its facilities, employed a large number of workers, and trained experts.
In the period after the 1990s, the company went through difficult and challenging times due to the overall crisis, which left serious consequences.
A turning point in the modern history of the Company was the investment in 2017, when the Government of the Republic of Serbia allocated funds in the amount of 6.8 million euros, which allowed for the modernization of production facilities and laboratories.
Thanks to the aforementioned investments, “Teleoptik-Gyroscopes” now possesses modern machinery and technological processes. The most significant change resulting from this modernization is the shift from a classical optics program to optoelectronics and new technologies, and from a previously exclusively production-oriented company to a company that has established its own research and development capacities in order to expand its production program and support the current needs for modernization of the Serbian Armed Forces in the field of the most modern guidance and control technologies, computers, homing heads, monitors, avionics, fire control systems, and sensors.
“Teleoptik-Gyroscopes” produces optical, reflex and thermal sights for the needs of the Serbian Armed Forces, and participates in some of the most significant modernization programs, within which it produces the attack navigation system for the modernized Orao aircraft, the optoelectronic system for the modernized BVP, the optoelectronic computer system for the modernized 122 mm self-propelled howitzer – Gvozdika, optoelectronic systems for River Flotilla vessels, and participates in the modernization of portable short-range air defense systems.
For the needs of the domestic and foreign markets, it produces sighting devices for mortars, silencers, control and guidance sections with homing heads (GSN) of guided missiles, and a number of other electronic and optoelectronic components.
Thanks to the support of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Ministry of Defense, which recognized the importance of this company for further improving the capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces in high-tech areas dictated by the conditions of the modern battlefield, as well as the efforts of the company itself, “Teleoptik” is returning to the positions it occupied during the most successful period of its operations, as a globally recognized center of the most sophisticated technologies without which the latest generation of weapons is unimaginable.