Prince William has made a secret visit to British troops in Afghanistan, it was revealed last night.

The Prince took control of a C17 Globemaster transport aircraft for part of its journey from the UK to Kandahar, in the south of the country, on Sunday morning.

He spent three hours on the ground at the airfield, which is a regular target for rocket attacks, meeting personnel and being briefed on the work of British troops in the region — in particular that of the Royal Air Force.

The Prince, who is reaching the end of a four-month attachment with the RAF, then flew to the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the main British support base for both Operation Telic in Iraq and Operation Herrick in Afghanistan. He spent several hours there before flying back to Britain, where he arrived on Monday. The whole trip took about 30 hours, a spokesman said.

Security concerns meant that the Prince’s visit was kept secret until last night. A fortnight ago two British soldiers were killed when their vehicle was caught in an explosion during a patrol to protect the Kandahar airfield.

A spokesman for Clarence House said last night that the 25-year-old Prince joined the air crew of a scheduled transport flight to Afghanistan, and piloted the aircraft for part of the eight-hour journey to and from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, but did not land the aircraft or take off.

He said that both the Queen and the Prince of Wales gave their consent to the trip, which was intended to give Prince William an insight into how the RAF is operating in a conflict zone.

“The purpose of the trip was for the Prince to familiarise himself with the operations of the RAF in theatre,”

the spokesman said. He added that the visit was the “culmination of his time with the RAF”, and had “passed without a hitch”.

Prince William, who is known in the RAF as Flying Officer Wales, was presented with his pilot’s “wings” by his father at a graduation ceremony this month. But his short time with the RAF has not been without controversy. In recent weeks the Service has attracted criticism for allowing Prince William to land a multimillion-pound Chinook helicopter in the Berkshire garden of his girlfriend, Kate Middleton.

He also used a Chinook to fly to the stag party of Peter Phillips, his cousin, on the Isle of Wight, stopping off at Woolwich Barracks in southeast London to pick up Prince Harry.

The younger Prince has considerably more first-hand experience of Afghanistan than his brother, after spending ten weeks working as a forward air controller in Helmand province before being swiftly pulled out of the country when news of his presence leaked out in last month.

Last week he and William visited Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey, where they met troops who had been injured in Afghanistan, including Marine Ben McBean, 21, who was flown back to the UK at the same time as Prince Harry after losing an arm and a leg.

Prince William’s next attachment, with the Royal Navy, will begin after a period of leave at the beginning of June. The secondments are designed as part of a “familiarisation” exercise to help the Prince understand all the Armed Forces, which he will one day head.

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