PARIS — The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence is teaming up with the British Esports Federation to set up a military esports tournament and boost the digital and cyber skills of its armed forces personnel.

The new esports collaboration will include a focus on artificial intelligence and drone operation, the MoD said in a statement on Tuesday. Improving the digital skills of military personnel will help boost U.K. war-fighting readiness, according to the ministry.

The MoD cited the example of Ukraine, which produces its own drone-simulator games to improve hand-eye coordination. Ukraine has become a crucible of military drone innovation, with unmanned aerial vehicles omnipresent on the battlefield, and first-person view drones now seen as responsible for most of the Russian and Ukrainian casualties.

“We’ve learned from our Ukrainian partners about how esports can train drone operators and cyber security specialists,” Lt. Gen. Tom Copinger-Symes, deputy commander of UK Strategic Command, said in the statement.

“As 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,” Copinger-Symes said.

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.

The U.K. recognized esports as an official military sport just over a year ago, according to the MoD. Copinger-Symes said esports “perfectly complement” the century-old use of ballgames such as rugby and football to develop teamwork, fitness and resilience.

The British Esports Federation, the country’s 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.

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.

The event is being supported by suppliers including BAE Systems as well as several smaller military technology companies, according to the ministry.

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.

“From drone operations to data analysis, modern defense and deterrence needs agile minds that can navigate both physical and digital battlegrounds,” Carns said. The planned games are “an exciting initiative that will help foster exactly these skills in a fun, collaborative way, and overcome many traditional boundaries between our international partners.”

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.

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.