Prince Harry has been promoted to Captain within the Army Air Corps in recognition of time service in the Armed Forces. The Prince – now known as Captain Harry Wales in the military – was also awarded his Apache Badge from the Officer in Command of his Squadron on Thursday 14th April, marking the completion of the eight month Apache Conversion to Type (CTT) Course.

Prince Harry is now qualified to fly the aircraft without an instructor and has progressed to a further eight month weapons handling course in order to become a fully operational Army Air Corps Pilot.

The timing of Prince Harry’s promotion to Captain and the completion of the Apache CTT course are coincidental.

The demanding CTT course includes ground school training, day and night flying as well as complex simulator training. Prince Harry and his fellow students undertook 14 day-flying sorties testing their ability to fly in cloud and to navigate complex and congested airspace.

Before progressing on to the night flying phase, Prince Harry was tested using a cockpit blackout system known as the ‘Bag.’ This exercise prepares students for flying on the Night Vision System, which displays thermal imagery into the Helmet Mounted Display over the pilot’s right eye. The night flying phase lasted approximately three months culminating in a final assessment, during which students commanded a pair of Apache helicopters at night in order to test their handling, captaincy, understanding of the aircraft system and response to simulated emergencies.

The final flying phase of the course involved a two-week Mountain Flying exercise in the French Alps.

Prince Harry will now progress to the Apache Conversion to Role course where he will learn to operate the aircraft and its weapons systems in a variety of challenging operational scenarios. The Prince will be based at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk and undertake a section of the training in the United States of America.