WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, the deputy commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, as director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. Cyber Command, the Pentagon said Thursday in a statement.
A former Special Forces officer from South Carolina, Rudd would be elevated to general. He currently serves as the No. 2 at the U.S. military's Indo-Pacific Command, which is responsible for U.S. forces in the greater Pacific region.
The NSA, which focuses on signals intelligence and cyberespionage, is one of the world's most powerful surveillance agencies and absorbs gargantuan quantities of data through electronic intercepts and spyware. Cyber Command is the Pentagon's top cyberwarfare unit and focuses both on hacking and defending military networks against foreign spies and saboteurs.
In a "dual hat" arrangement that dates back to 2010, the NSA director also oversees Cyber Command.
Rudd did not return messages seeking comment. The NSA referred questions to the White House, which did not return a message seeking comment. Cyber Command did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The NSA and Cyber Command have been without Senate-confirmed leaders since Trump sacked General Timothy Haugh as part of a wider purge of national security officials in April. In June, Politico reported that the Pentagon's pick for Haugh's replacement, Army Lieutenant General Richard Angle, was vetoed by the White House.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Raphael Satter, writing by Christian Martinez, Editing by Franklin Paul, Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
