[1/2] Spain's Princess Leonor speaks during the ceremony of the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities at Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo, Spain October 22, 2021.
REUTERS/Vincent West/MADRID, March 14 (Reuters) - Princess Leonor, 17 and the heir presumptive to the Spanish throne, will undergo three years of military training starting in August, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Tuesday.
"As in all parliamentary monarchies (the heir) has to have a military background and a military career," Robles said after a cabinet meeting.
The princess will receive her first year of training at the Army Military Academy in Zaragoza, then go to a naval school, which includes sailing the Juan Sebastian Elcano training tall ship, and finish her studies at the General Air Academy.
The government and the Royal House have agreed her "very intense" military training will precede university studies, following in the footsteps of her father in the 1980s.