Prince William will be making a rare joint appearance with a popular foreign royal this week. The Prince of Wales will head to Oxfordshire on Wednesday to visit RAF Benson alongside the Crown Prince of Jordan, Al Hussein bin Abdullah II.
The two heirs will tour the premises and oversee the work at the base, while they will also meet with trainee aircrew and staff of two squadrons. William and Hussein will hear from personnel about their roles on site and experiences being deployed in operations around the world.
They will also inspect aircraft and meet helicopter technicians at a squadron’s hangar.
According to Kensington Palace, the visit will mark their strong relationship and their mutual respect and support for the Armed Forces.
RAF Benson is a key military base that provides rapid support for various operations worldwide.
It is home to to a number of Squadrons including No.22 Squadron, which provides operational testing, evaluation, tactics and training for all aviation in Joint Aviation Command and No.28 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, which is the Chinook operational conversion unit, training aircrew before they fly on the front line.
The visit also comes as No. 22 Sqn celebrates its 110th anniversary.
It will hold a special place in William’s heart, as he has previously trained at both RAF Shawbury and as a search and rescue pilot at RAF Valley with No. 22 Sqn, which reformed at RAF Benson in 2020.
The Crown Prince of Jordan is also a trained helicopter pilot and completed his training with the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) in 2019.
He is currently a Major in the Jordanian Armed Forces.