Filenews 19 March 2025
Two aircraft arrived in Cyprus from Jordan to assist in the work of fighting the fires. At the same time, yesterday, an exercise was held with the participation of all involved in view of the start of the fire season.
The announcement in detail:
On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in the context of undertaking the task of managing air firefighting aircraft by the National Guard, a tabletop exercise was conducted in cooperation with the Fire Service, the Department of Forests, the Civil Defence Force and the Ambulance Service at the Fire Service Headquarters.
The exercise was attended by personnel from the aforementioned service bodies, as well as personnel of the Operations Center of the Flying Means Squadron of the Air Force Command of the National Guard General Staff, from its area of operation.
The purpose of the exercise was to test the operation of the procedures and means of Command and Control of the Fire Management System, after the reorganization of the air fire extinguishing system. Through the various scenarios examined, pooling, effective inter-agency cooperation, interoperability and the implementation of a single strategy, which play a key role in the successful fulfilment of this mission, were tested.
In the context of timely preparation due to the imminent start of the fire season, on the same day the first two Air Tractor aircraft arrived from the Kingdom of Jordan at Larnaka International Airport, implementing the provisions of the Memorandum of Bilateral Cooperation between the two countries, which, as last year, will assist in the difficult task of fighting the fires.
The Chief of National Guard Lieutenant General Tsitsicostas Georgios visited the newly arrived personnel from Jordan and after thanking them for their presence and assistance in dealing with the forest fires, he wished them a pleasant stay in Cyprus and every success in fulfilling the very serious and difficult mission assigned to them. At the same time, he reiterated that their presence in the Republic of Cyprus proves the upgraded cooperation and excellent relationship between the Armed Forces of the two countries.
