During 1935, the designers of IK-2 - Ljubomir Ilic and Kosta Sivcev, were joined by Slobodan Zrnic in the design of a new private venture single-seat fighter for the Rogozharski AD factory in Beograd. This aircraft was designated IKZ or IK-Z. The similarity of the Cyrillic "Z" and the number "3" led to a confusion, and as a result the aircraft is known as IK-3 in common usage. Rogozharski AD received the contract for a single prototype in March 1937, and it was completed and flown for the first time in the end of May 1939. It was powered by a Hispano-Suiza 12Y29 engine, rated at 920 hp at an altitude of 3.600 m. It carried an armament comprised of a engine-mounted 20 mm HS 404 cannon and two fuselage-mounted 7,92 mm. machine-guns. It was of mixed construction, with plywood-covered wooden wings and a steel-tube fuselage with wooden stringers, metal skinning forward and fabric aft. After successful tests, an initial contract for 12 series produced IK-3 was signed in November 1938, but because of the prototype crash on 19.01.39 during a pull-out from a terminal velocity dive, which caused the starboard wing to collapse, the series IK-3 had a modified wing structure, a new cockpit canopy and landing gear fairings. The HS 404 cannon was replaced by an Oerlikon FF 20 mm. cannon (used on the Messerschmitt Bf-109E-2, which was in service with the VVKJ), while the Hispano-Suiza 12Y29 engine was replaced by the Avia-built (Czechoslovakian) Hispano Suiza 12Ycrs engines (the ones previously used on the IK-2). The first six IK-3 were completed in March 1940, and the following six in July 1940. A further series of 25 IK-3 were ordered and were under construction and a prototype fitted with the Daimler Benz DB-601A engine (also used on the Bf-109E-2) was constructed, but none of them were completed before the German invasion in April 1941. During the invasion, the VVKJ had only 6 IK-3 operational, and all of them were in the 51st Fighter Group (51va Lovacka Grupa), based in the Zemun airfield near Belgrade, which were in the 6th Fighter Wing (6ti Lovacki Puk). These fighters fought during the bombardment of Belgrade on 06.04.1941 and 3 of them were destroyed during the fought, but the IK-3 fighters destroyed 10 German planes. The remaining aircraft fought in the following days and retreated with the other surviving planes of the 6th Wing on the Bijeljina airport where most of them were destroyed by a German air attack during the night of 11-12 April, while the remaining IK-3 aircraft (along with others) were burned on the Veliki Radinci airstrip, not to fall into the hands of the enemy.

+ 2X7,92 mm.