The British Army has recognised the value of videogames by headhunting kids to fill such positions as helicopter pilots.

The industry has long argued the benefits of game playing, such as improved hand-eye coordination, and that has now received military acknowledgement with the boys in green stating that gamers would make great Apache pilots.

With the army tied up in areas like Afghanistan and Iraq they are conscious of the time needed to train pilots to fly what are regarded as extremely complicated machines.

A senior Army Air Corp officer told the Mirror on Sunday, “The skill in flying the aircraft is to absorb large amounts of information from different sources without becoming flustered. The new generation of computer game-playing youngsters glued to their PlayStations, Xboxes and Game Boys already have some of those skills".

The UK ordered 67 Apaches from the US in 2002, at a cost of around £37 million ($71m) per aircraft. Despite their use in the field many of the aircraft have remained in hangers due to the lack of pilots able to fly them.

So, the shout goes out to all gamers who feel it’s time to move out of their mum’s house and take up their country’s call.

>> Link - Official Site/Army Air Corp
>> Link - Official Site/British Army
>> Link - Official Site/Royal Air force