Air Force Cyber Lead Selected to Serve as Joint Staff CIO

Then-U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mary F. O’Brien, former Twenty-Fifth Air Force commander, delivers final remarks during the Twenty-Fifth Air Force change of command ceremony at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, Aug. 29, 2019.

Then-U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mary F. O’Brien, former Twenty-Fifth Air Force commander, delivers final remarks during the Twenty-Fifth Air Force change of command ceremony at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, Aug. 29, 2019. Sharon Singleton/U.S. Air Force

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Brandi Vincent By Brandi Vincent,
Defense Technology Correspondent

By Brandi Vincent

|

She’ll need confirmation from the Senate to proceed.

President Joe Biden nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Mary F. O’Brien for appointment to the Joint Staff as director of command, control, communication and computers/cyber; and chief information officer, J6, the Pentagon confirmed on Wednesday.

“We are awaiting Senate confirmation before Lt. Gen. O'Brien assumes her new position,” a Defense Department spokesperson told Nextgov on Friday.

O’Brien served in a range of intelligence command and staff assignments since joining the military in the late 1980s. She is currently operating as Air Force deputy chief of staff, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects operations, a role in which she steers six directorates supporting a 73,000-person intelligence and cyber operations enterprise, with a portfolio valued at $72 billion.

DOD’s spokesperson said that O’Brien’s replacement hasn’t been announced yet. Also unclear at this point is where the current J6—Marine Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall—is heading to next. 

If confirmed in this new position, O’Brien will play a key role in the Pentagon’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control effort, or JADC2, to ultimately drive interoperability and communication between its many systems and provide for improved decision-making among its personnel.

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