The National Security Agency is preparing its broadest internal overhaul in more than a decade, a redesign that signals where the U.S. signals-intelligence powerhouse believes its hardest problems now lie: artificial intelligence, China and cybersecurity.

The process began last week, when senior NSA leaders were told of the emerging plan. Current and former officials briefed on it described the new structure as the brainchild of Army Gen. Joshua M. Rudd, the agency’s director, and as the most extensive restructuring in at least 10 years.¹

Rudd’s proposal would replace neither the NSA’s core surveillance mission nor its military role. Instead, it would reorganize the Fort Meade agency around five newly defined organizations: artificial intelligence, China, cybersecurity, combat support or warfighting, and global intelligence. Each would be headed by an elevated “mission director,” a move designed to give the priorities clearer ownership inside an institution long organized around highly specialized technical work.²

The sequencing is revealing. AI and China are not being treated as side projects bolted onto the agency’s existing bureaucracy; they are being placed alongside cyber defense, military support and global collection as standalone centers of power. That suggests an NSA trying to make technological competition and Beijing-focused intelligence permanent organizing principles rather than temporary surges.

At the same time, the plan preserves a broader view of the agency’s job. Combat support and global intelligence remain among the five pillars, underscoring that the restructuring is meant to sharpen the NSA’s priorities without narrowing its worldwide remit. The proposal has been announced internally, but the accounts provided do not specify a timetable for implementation or the practical changes the new mission directors will command.