Prince Harry, a captain in the British Army Air Corps, is heading to the United States for training as an Apache attack helicopter pilot.

The bon vivant younger son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana is already an Apache pilot, and served for 10 weeks with Western forces fighting Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008. Now, with the new training, he plans to learn how to operate the helicopter's Hellfire missiles and laser-guided cannons.

No dates for his training have been announced. But his spokesman said that sometime in the next couple months Prince Harry expects to start two-and-a-half to three months of classes at military bases in the western U.S. states of California and Arizona.

When he completes the training, Prince Harry — known in the military as Captain Harry Wales — could return to a war zone. But that deployment decision is up to his commanders.