The APS-95 (The Ero) was an assault rifle manufactured in Croatia by Končar-Arma d.o.o since 1995 and offered for export up to at least 2007. The manufacturing company, a subsidiary of the Croatian ARMA-GRUPA Corporation, has been manufacturing the ERO and Mini-ERO submachine guns (copies of the Israeli UZI and Mini-UZI respectively) since the mid-1990s.
The manufacturer tried to push the APS-95 on the international market for several years with no success.
History
The APS-95 was developed under request of the Croatian Army, which wanted to shift as soon as possible from the then-issued Yugoslavian-made 7.62×39mm Zastava M70 assault rifles to a service rifle chambered for the NATO-standard 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge.
During the Croatian War of Independence, the Croatian side had been supplied by the Croatian businessman Antun Kikaš with several batches of the Vektor R4, a South African copy of the Israeli IMI Galil assault rifle. The Croatian fighters appreciated the weapon and wanted a locally manufactured version of it as the new standard Croatian Army rifle.
The APS-95 was officially adopted by the Croatian Army around 1993,
While the APS-95 was not entirely adopted in the Croatian Army, some of them were used in the Yugoslav Wars.