most of the Russian and Ukrainian casualties<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve learned from our Ukrainian partners about how esports can train drone operators and cyber security specialists,\u201d Lt. Gen. Tom Copinger-Symes, deputy commander of UK Strategic Command, said in the statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs competition and conflict increasingly play out in cyberspace and the digital arena, these games equip our people to think, operate and innovate across both the physical and virtual worlds, developing team coordination and rapid decision-making under pressure,\u201d Copinger-Symes said.<\/p>\n
As well as offering entertainment during down time, gaming has seen use to train troops for decades, with the U.S. Marines playing a modified version of the game Doom as early as the 1990s. The U.S. has been leading in military use of video games, collaborating with publishers including Ubisoft and organizing its inaugural first Armed Forces Esports Championship in 2022.<\/p>\n
The U.K. recognized esports as an official military sport just over a year ago, according to the MoD. Copinger-Symes said esports \u201cperfectly complement\u201d the century-old use of ballgames such as rugby and football to develop teamwork, fitness and resilience.<\/p>\n
The British Esports Federation, the country\u2019s national body for competitive video gaming, will be tasked with setting up a defense and industry esports tournament, with the first finals of the future International Defence Esports Games to be held in the U.K. in late 2026.<\/p>\n
The games will help members of the armed forces develop cyber, digital and more general military skills, according to the MoD, which said the event will initially be open to service personnel including reservists, before expanding to include cadets, veterans, civil servants and anyone working in the defense industry.<\/p>\n
The event is being supported by suppliers including BAE Systems as well as several smaller military technology companies, according to the ministry.<\/p>\n
Esports will help the armed forces attract, develop and retain cyber and digital talent, according to Al Carns, the U.K. Minister for Veterans and People.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom drone operations to data analysis, modern defense and deterrence needs agile minds that can navigate both physical and digital battlegrounds,\u201d Carns said. The planned games are \u201can exciting initiative that will help foster exactly these skills in a fun, collaborative way, and overcome many traditional boundaries between our international partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Royal Navy previously teamed up with British Esports to create an esports facility aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, the MoD said.<\/p>\n
To address additional needs for cyber-security specialists, the MoD announced a bespoke route for would-be cyber professionals and those with existing digital skills to join the force, with new-recruit basic training cut to around one month from 10 weeks, followed by three months of specialist training in the field.<\/p>\n
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 The United Kingdom\u2019s Ministry of Defence is teaming up with the British Esports Federation to set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,5606,5607,5602,2595,393,62255,299,4884,1144,712,9699,16,15,55631,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-301599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-circulated-defense-news","11":"tag-defense-news","12":"tag-dn-dnr","13":"tag-drones","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-esports","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-training","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-unmanned","24":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114937402881557810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}