Even if they do very little service ?
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The King as the Head of State is for lack of a better term the ‘commander of chief’ of the British Armed forces in the same way as the US President is for the American Armed Forces. The British Armed Forces technically report into the King.
On paper at least the Secretary of State for Defence and Prime Minister take on the role of making military decisions at the Kings pleasure. In other words the King technically puts them in charge of the military so he doesn’t have to do it.
The British military by tradition is the King’s hence why it’s the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
While the army historically was a combination of forces that belonged to the various nobles that was called upon by the King when needed. This is why it isn’t referred to as the Royal Army. Many of the current permanent regiments draw their names and history from noble armies.
The noble in question also often paid for the soldiers and equipment and by extension became the units commander. Which is in part why Officers and Enlisted men are separate, it is an extension of the Nobles vs common folk in the military.
Every year Parliament must pass a bill to continue to allow the King to maintain an army, otherwise by default all the British forces would have to be dissolved. This is was a check in the Kings power that remains to this day out of tradition and like many things in British Government isn’t super well enforced these days.
Since the Royals are so closely associated with the military they are almost all considered active service members.
Most attend military college, King Charles took classes at Royal Air Force College Cranwell and Royal Naval College Dartmouth.
King Charles actually served in the Royal Navy, Prince William was a Helicopter Pilot, and Prince Harry served in Afghanistan. So their military rank and service is legitimate, although William as the heir was kept out of harms way in England rather than being deployed.
King Charles’ medals are also legit, but if you look at what he has they are all good conduct medals, and medals you get for being in the Navy for a length of time. He has no campaign medals for example, meaning he wasn’t deployed to a war.
It is tradition that a royal be promoted at the same time as their peers even if they aren’t actively serving.
So if Williams classmates at college mostly got promoted to Major, William gets that promotion as well by default so that a royal doesn’t end up falling behind in rank compared to their peers. William currently holds the rank of Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps.
King Charles technically holds the highest rank in each of the branches having been promoted by his Mother the Queen. Field Marshal, Admiral of the Fleet and Marshal of the Royal Air Force. These ranks are now technically moot as he is King and therefore higher in rank than even those.
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