WASHINGTON — The Trump administration appears to have selected a senior Army official from US Indo-Pacific Command to lead US Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, though the White House has yet to officially confirm the move.
A spokesperson for Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Breaking Defense today that lawmakers had received the nomination of Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd for the dual-hatted post, following several news reports that Rudd had been selected.
“I look forward to reviewing Lt. Gen. [Joshua] Rudd’s nomination and evaluating his qualifications to lead the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command at a moment of unprecedented cyber and national security threats,” Warner said in a statement. “That said, it should never have taken this long to nominate someone to this critical post.”
On Tuesday the Congressional Record showed Rudd had been nominated to the rank of general for an unspecified position, which is a requirement for the dual-hatted role. However, when asked about Rudd’s selection for the CYBERCOM/NSA post, a White House official told Breaking Defense Tuesday only that “no such nomination has been transmitted to the Senate.” The White House did not immediately clarify the situation today.
Rudd’s purported nomination comes after the position has been empty for nearly eight months following the abrupt firing of Gen. Timothy Haugh, along with his NSA deputy Wendy Noble, in April. Far-right activist Laura Loomer took responsibility for advising the president to fire the pair, alleging they were “disloyal” to Trump.
In Haugh’s absence, Lt. Gen. William Hartman, who was serving as Haugh’s CYBERCOM deputy, has been serving as the acting chief of CYBERCOM and the NSA. But recent reports indicate he was ultimately not a top contender for the permanent position.
According to Rudd’s DoD biography, he has no experience in cybersecurity or any other digital network portfolio, but he does have an extensive background in special operations. According to The Record, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said during the Aspen Cyber Summit last month that an extensive history in cyberwarfare was not necessarily a requirement for the position.
How warfighters communicate when their missions are beyond visual line of sight
Standoff capability means warfighters stay connected and remain remotely located in a safer environment while making it harder for adversaries to target them.
“Do you have to have specific knowledge of it to come in to manage it and operate it? It helps but it’s not necessarily mandatory,” Rounds, said at the time according to the outlet. “These guys that are out there, and they’re in the field … they’re using it every day as a user, so they kind of have an understanding of what it is to begin with.”