The National Security Agency is preparing its most extensive internal restructuring in at least a decade, creating five mission-focused organizations as officials work toward full implementation by mid-January.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
The National Security Agency is preparing a major internal overhaul that would reorganize its work around five priority areas — artificial intelligence, China, cybersecurity, combat support or warfighting, and global intelligence — in what officials describe as the agency’s first extensive restructuring in at least a decade.
Current and former officials familiar with the developing plan told The Washington Post that each of the five organizations would be headed by a newly designated “mission director,” creating senior leadership positions with authority comparable to that of an NSA deputy director.
NSA Director Joshua Rudd has said the changes are intended to bring the agency’s internal structure more closely in line with its present and anticipated national security priorities, according to officials briefed on the initiative.
The transformation is moving on what multiple officials described as an “aggressive” schedule. The newly appointed mission directors are expected to submit plans for redesigning their organizations to Rudd by the end of September, followed by a broader rollout targeted for mid-October. The agency is aiming to reach “full operating capacity” by mid-January.
Precisely how extensive the resulting structural changes will be remains unresolved. Officials said personnel do not yet know whether the five mission directors will simply be added to the NSA’s existing bureaucracy or whether their organizations will replace or substantially reorganize current divisions.
Rudd has acknowledged some of that uncertainty while pressing ahead with the compressed timetable, according to one official.
Rudd “admitted that they don’t know how they are going to do it, so they are going to rush into reversible decisions, in case it is wrong,” the official told the Post.
Another source of concern inside the agency has been the possibility that some or all of the five mission directors could be recruited from outside the NSA rather than promoted from its existing workforce.
The prospect unsettled some officials as the agency deals with leadership and personnel needs.
“They are begging people to come back, especially leaders,” one official told the Post.
The five proposed organizations would give separate senior-level attention to issues that span several of the NSA’s most consequential missions. Artificial intelligence would receive its own organization, as would intelligence involving China and cybersecurity. A fourth would concentrate on combat support or warfighting, while another would oversee global intelligence.
The arrangement would give each mission chief substantial authority, although officials remain uncertain about how responsibilities would be divided between the new leaders and the agency’s established management structure.
Artificial intelligence has already emerged as a particular focus for Rudd since he took over the NSA in March. He has participated in frequent White House meetings concerning AI-related issues while emphasizing the technology as a priority for the agency.
The restructuring also comes as the Trump administration has proposed a multibillion-dollar budget increase directed toward investments in information technology and computing capabilities.
For the NSA workforce, however, the immediate questions center on how quickly the new structure can be built and how much of the existing organization will remain intact.
With organizational plans expected from the five mission directors by the end of the month, implementation targeted for mid-October and full operating capacity sought by mid-January, the agency is attempting to carry out its broadest internal reorganization in years on a timetable that officials themselves acknowledge leaves significant details still to be determined.
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