The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center or JRCC Larnaca (Greek: Κέντρο Συντονισμού Έρευνας και Διάσωσης) is an independent agency of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus and its primary mission is to organize the national Search and Rescue (SAR) system, to co-ordinate, to control and direct SAR operations in the region that the Cyprus JRCC is responsible for (which coincides with the Nicosia FIR), so that people, whose lives are at risk as a result of aviation or maritime accidents, can be located and rescued in the least amount of time.[3]
This is achieved by coordinating all the different agencies involved such as, Cyprus Police (Including Port and Marine Police, Cyprus Fire Service and Cyprus Police Aviation Unit), the Cypriot National Guard, the Cyprus Civil Defence and other secondary Units,[4] acting as a communications agent between them, so that they do not conduct overlapping searches and waste time by searching areas already searched by other units and in general help all the different units operate as a single larger in numbers unit, eliminating any other problems that might occur.
It is under the operational control of the Minister of Defence and it is staffed by qualified personnel of the Cyprus National Guard, mainly from the branches of the Navy and the Air Force and with all logistic and technical support is the responsibility of the Ministry of Communications & Works.[5][6]
Τhe Joint Rescue Coordination Center is located to in the city of Larnaca in a new owned building near of Larnaca Airport.[7][8]
History
The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center was established by Law 5(III)/94 and started operating on a trial 24-hour basis on the 7th of August 1995 as an independent unit of the Cyprus Air Force Command.[9][10]
On March 1, 2002 by decision of the Ministry Cabinet the JRCC undertook formally the responsibility for organizing, coordinating and monitoring, search and rescue operations, in the region that the Republic of Cyprus is responsible for.[11]
The JRCC functioned as such until the 26th of July, 2010. Following the relevant opinion of Attorney General for the provisions of Law 5 (III) / 1994 (on Research - Rescue Ratification Act) JRCC reports directly to the Minister of Defence and operates as an independent agency of the Ministry of Defence.
As a result of the Israel–Hamas war which re-erupted on October 7 after a hamas led terrorist attack on Israel, due to the offensive in Gaza, it had become increasingly difficult to get aid into Palestinian territories.[19] As such, the Cypriot government proposed the Amalthea initiative, which was aid, starting from Larnaca port being sent to Gaza by sea.[20] After weeks of planning, it was approved of by the European Union, the United States and the UAE and began sending aid, with the first ship arriving on March 17.[21][22] Both Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola visited the JRCC and thanked them for their work in co-ordinating the initiative.[23][24]
Training activities
The JRCC is also responsible for training and advising other countries on their Search and Rescue skills and plans.[25] In August of 2024 the JRCC signed an agreement with Lebanon in order to train its staff on search and rescue procedures and begun training their staff from July 30 to August 2nd.[26]
Cyprus search and rescue region (SRR)
The Cyprus search and rescue region (SRR) coincides with the Nicosia FIR as described in the current Air Navigation Plan of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).[27]
Distress frequencies
The internationally established frequencies to be used for Distress and Safety and monitored by Search and Rescue are:[28]
518 kHz NAVTEX (Maritime safety information)
121.5 MHz International civil aviation distress frequency
243.0 MHz International military aviation distress frequency
156.8 MHz (CH-16) International maritime call and distress frequency
156.525 MHz (CH-70)
2187.5 kHz
4207.5 kHz
6312.0 kHz
8414.5 kHz
12577.0 kHz
16804.5 kHz
2182 kHz International maritime call and distress frequency on MF
406.025 MHz Transmission frequency of EPIRB, ELT and PLB of the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system
JRCC Larnaca maintains continued monitoring of the following frequencies:
121.5 MHz VHF/AM
134.0 MHz VHF/AM (Common of Initial Contact with JRCC)
243.0 MHz UHF/AM
255.0 MHz UHF/AM (Common of Initial Contact with JRCC)
156.8 MHz (CH-16) VHF/FM
2182 kHz MF/HF
The DSC frequencies mentioned above are monitored by Cyprus Coast Station (Cyprus Radio)
518 kHz NAVTEX
Note that: JRCC uses the NATO phonetic alphabet for communicating characters in English and the standard Greek phonetic alphabet (Ελληνικό φωνητικό αλφάβητο) for communicating characters in Greek.[29]
