Summarized by the Alliance for Fort Gordon
Published March 12, 2026
The Senate has confirmed Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd to be the next commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.
The 71-29 vote, means Rudd will pin on his fourth star and the two organizations will have a permanent leader after nearly a year with an acting commander. The Trump administration fired Gen. Timothy Haugh in early April just over a year into the job, still without public reasoning.
Rudd comes into the job with virtually no direct experience in the signals intelligence and cyber world, having been a career special operations officer. However, he has touted his prior leadership roles and exposure to intelligence and cyber capabilities in the shadowy world of special operations.