diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index f6cd3dd73..ea572c958 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 [submodule "rpmbuild"]
 	path = rpmbuild
 	url = git@devel:lifemaps/rpmbuild.git
+        branch = story/release-at-16-oct-2026
 [submodule "jenkins-ci-rme"]
 	path = jenkins-ci-rme
 	url = git@devel:lifemaps/rme-jenkins.git
+        branch = story/release-at-16-oct-2026
diff --git a/rpmbuild b/rpmbuild
new file mode 160000
index 000000000..152c4b8ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpmbuild
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 152c4b8ce248c748971e3ba26262c54b4ca86b64