Construction works are well underway for a multi-use heliport at the site of Mari naval base, reports said on Tuesday.
Taking part in the earthworks and soil removal is the US Navy’s Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1.
US Navy personnel have been assisting in the construction of the heliport, which will reportedly measure 400m by 170m.
Photographs published by the website Defence Visual Information Distribution Service show trucks, excavators and other heavy machinery operating at the site.
Daily Politis said the heliport comes under a defence cooperation agreement signed between Cyprus and the United States.
Mari is the National Guard’s only naval base.
The heliport is designed for use primarily by military helicopters, but also by other types of airborne means – transport aircraft, and search and rescue.
Workers broke ground at Mari in the summer of 2023. According to Politis, in August of that year US Ambassador to Cyprus Julie Fisher visited the site along with then defence minister Michalis Giorgallas.
In a post on social media at the time, Fisher said the project is part of joint Cypriot-American operations promoting security and stability in the eastern Mediterranean. The heliport would expand capacity for evacuating civilians from war zones in the region.
A source told Politis that construction of the heliport is unrelated – at least directly – with the project to expand the naval base.
The facilities at Mari naval base are set to be expanded both on land and at sea. These works are expected to commence sometime next year, and would last for up to a year-and-a-half.
The estimated expansion of Mari would cost around €200 million.
On its completion, the naval base will be able to provide facilities to the war navies of foreign countries.
The National Guard possesses an offshore patrol vessel, the Alasia, which currently cannot dock at Mari as the facilities there are inadequate. It therefore has to dock at the port of Limassol.
The ship had been gifted to Cyprus by the Sultan of Oman in 2017.
