Kosta Milovanović, known under his nick name Koka, was a Serbian military general, professor at the Military Academy and the first Serbian constructor of guns. He was born in Belgrade and after the graduation at the Grammar School; he attended the school for artillery. In 1868, he got the rank of the artillery second lieutenant. In the rank of major he became the first military attaché of the Kingdom of Serbia abroad, in particular in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the periods from 1878-1880 and 1886 -1890. He also participated in the Serbian-Bulgarian War 1885-1886.
When the Kingdom of Serbia, at the end of seventies decided upon the modernization of its weapons, he found himself as the head of the Commission that had been founded for the purpose of the implementation of this task. The Commission decided upon the Mauser single-shot rifle M1871 of 11mm calibre. However, Koka Mladenović decided to improve further the construction of this gun, so he stepped out of the membership in this Commission, and performed the planned refinements upon this gun, which significantly improved its ballistic performances. Finally, this gun became the part of the weapons of the Serbian Army as the infantry gun of the system Mauser-Milovanović M1880, and it had been produced in Kragujevac. It was one of the best in its class and with certain refinement it remained in the service also during the World War I.
Several interested facts are connected to the name of Koka Milovanović. The first one is that although he was elected for the member of Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences in January of 1885, he did not accept the membership. The second is that the cooperation of Koka Mladenović with Wilhelm Mauser led to the marriage of his daughter Eliza with Koka Mladenović.