I am of two mindsets regarding the good news that LTG Joshua Rudd has been nominated to lead the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command. On one hand, he’s not an intelligence or cyber officer and has no intelligence experience, particularly with neither SIGINT nor Cyber. Considering how vital these two agencies are to our national defenses that’s a serious issue. It also continues to indicate that our nation is not serious about its Information Warfare capability.
On the other hand, he has extensive JSOC as well as current PACOM experience. As a consumer of intelligence, he’ll have an idea of what he expects the organization to produce and he comprehends the pacing threat we face in the Pacific. An additional advantage is that as an ARSOF General, he may gain a better appreciation for the “Cyber” element of the SOF-Cyber-Space triad currently so popular with his compatriots. In particular, I’m hoping he realizes that Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations are what they are really interested in and not the Cyber buzzword. Maybe he’ll also gain an appreciation for the authorities and expertise needed to provide the services associated with EMSO and why it’s best to defer to the pros from Dover and that the Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) penguins don’t really need thumbs (a “Madagascar” reference) as they have their own. If anything, SOF needs more of them within their formations.
For those of you unfamiliar with LTG Rudd’s here’s a link to his rather impressive bio.
This was first published in Soldier Systems Digest Vol 5, Issue 51, “The Convergence of Irregular Warfare and Information Warfare”
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