Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center
The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center or JRCC Larnaca 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 system, to co-ordinate, to control and direct SAR operations in the region that the Cyprus JRCC is responsible for, 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.
This is achieved by coordinating all the different agencies involved such as, Cyprus Police, the Cypriot National Guard, the Cyprus Civil Defence and other secondary Units, 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.
Τhe Joint Rescue Coordination Center is located in the city of Larnaca in a new owned building near Larnaca Airport.
History
The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center was established by Law 5/94 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.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.
The JRCC functioned as such until the 26th of July, 2010. Following the relevant opinion of Attorney General for the provisions of Law 5 / 1994 JRCC reports directly to the Minister of Defence and operates as an independent agency of the Ministry of Defence.
2023 Sudan crisis
The JRCC haδ played a pivotal role for incoming Britons who were evacuated from Sudan by Royal Air Force during the 2023 conflict in processing them and giving them temporary accommodation in the Republic of Cyprus under the national "ESTIA" plan until they were moved to RAF Akrotiri and repatriated to the United Kingdom. The Cypriot authorities were thanked for their help by the Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace and later the British High Commissioner to Cyprus, . It also played a role in helping the evacuation and subsequent repatratiation of French and American citizens.Amalthea initiative
As a result of the Gaza 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. As such, the Cypriot government proposed the Amalthea initiative, which was aid, starting from Larnaca port being sent to Gaza by sea. The operational concept of the corridor was designed inside JRCC Larnaca by then commander Costas Fitiris, who has been described as one of the architects of the national SAR plans and of Amalthea itself.After weeks of planning, it was approved by the European Union, the United States and the UAE and began sending aid, with the first ship arriving on March 17. Both Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola visited the JRCC and thanked them for their work in co-ordinating the initiative.
Training activities
The JRCC is also responsible for training and advising other countries on their Search and Rescue skills and plans. In August 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 2.Notable commanders
- Costas Fitiris, retired rear admiral of the Cyprus Navy, former commander of JRCC Larnaca and of the Underwater Demolition Command (ΟΥΚ), credited with a key role in the design of national search-and-rescue plans such as Τεύκρος and Αμάλθεια. Since December 2025 he has served as Minister of Justice and Public Order of the Republic of Cyprus.
Cyprus search and rescue region (SRR)
The Cyprus search and rescue region coincides with the Nicosia FIR as described in the current Air Navigation Plan of the International Civil Aviation Organization.Distress frequencies
The internationally established frequencies to be used for Distress and Safety and monitored by Search and Rescue are:- 518 kHz NAVTEX
- 121.5 MHz International civil aviation distress frequency
- 243.0 MHz International military aviation distress frequency
- 156.8 MHz International maritime call and distress frequency
- 156.525 MHz
- 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
- 121.5 MHz VHF/AM
- 134.0 MHz VHF/AM
- 243.0 MHz UHF/AM
- 255.0 MHz UHF/AM
- 156.8 MHz VHF/FM
- 2182 kHz MF/HF
- 518 kHz NAVTEX