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Marrakech – Prince Gabriel of Belgium has completed his final winter training camp at Belgium’s Royal Military Academy in Morocco’s desert region near Errachidia, representing a key phase in his four-year military education.
The 22-year-old prince – officially holding the rank of Second Lieutenant van Saksen-Coburg within the armed forces – spent nearly two weeks, from January 26 to February 6, undergoing intensive training in the harsh desert terrain close to the Algerian border.
The Belgian Royal Palace released official photographs by Laszlo Reylandt on Sunday, showing Gabriel fully equipped during demanding day and night exercises.
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“Prince Gabriel and his fellow cadets completed their final winter camp at Belgium’s Royal Military Academy in the Moroccan desert near Errachidia,” the Palace said. “They learned to navigate, move, survive, and lead a platoon in an environment as inhospitable as it is magnificent.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Annelies Menten, commander of the Officer-Cadets Battalion, said the choice of Morocco was deliberate during an official statement issued by the Royal Military Academy on February 6.
“We specifically selected a winter camp in Morocco for the final year because it allows us to familiarize our students with complete strategic deployment,” she explained at the time.
The desert setting represented a marked departure from traditional training environments in Belgium’s forests. Cadets were required to operate across vast, roadless terrain devoid of familiar landmarks, relying instead on orientation skills, discipline, and leadership under pressure.
“In this terrain, things can go wrong very quickly if directives are not clearly given,” Menten noted, stressing how the environment forces junior officers to confront leadership responsibilities immediately. The exercises tested cadets’ ability to maintain cohesion, execute tactical maneuvers, and adapt rapidly to extreme conditions.
The desert exercise involved 169 officer-cadets and staff members who participated in the comprehensive training program. The training also incorporated elements of modern warfare, including drone operations conducted with a detachment from the First Chasseurs à Cheval.
One officer cadet described the added complexity: “Tactically, this is already very difficult terrain because everything is open and you have to think much more about how to take cover. Now that we’ve also worked with drones, we had to consider the best approach in a desert environment.”
Senior military leadership closely followed the exercise. General-Major An-Roos De Potter, commandant of the Royal Military Academy, and Colonel Vincent Douniaux, director of basic officer training, traveled to Morocco to assess the cadets’ progress firsthand.
This desert deployment builds on Prince Gabriel’s previous rigorous training, which included survival exercises in the tropical forests of French Guiana and an Erasmus exchange at France’s elite Saint-Cyr Military Academy. He completed his bachelor’s degree in social and military sciences in three years, earning his commission as a second lieutenant.
According to the Belgian Royal Palace, the experience forged “true leadership through overcoming challenges together and pushing limits under the most extreme conditions.” The European country’s royal heir is expected to receive his official diploma at the end of the academic year, potentially paving the way for active military service.
