The nomination was submitted Monday and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration.

The official who holds the ASD SO/LIC job “oversees and advocates for Special Operations and Irregular Warfare throughout the Department of Defense to ensure these capabilities are resourced, ready, and properly employed in accordance with the National Defense Strategy,” according to a Defense Department description of the position.

They’re responsible for exercising “authority, direction, and control of all special operations peculiar issues relating to the organization, training, and equipping of special operations forces,” as well as advising the undersecretary of defense for policy on special ops and irregular warfare policy issues.

Anderson has most recently been serving as acting assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, a job that he was appointed to in April. Previously, he was director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the early months of Trump’s second term.

He also has an extensive military background in the Army and special operations community, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, among other locations. He served as a Green Beret from 2010 to 2016, including as Special Forces company executive officer and Operational Detachment Alpha commander. Prior to that, he was an infantry platoon leader. He’s currently a lieutenant colonel in the District of Columbia Army National Guard, according to his official Army bio.

Anderson unsuccessfully ran for Congress as the Republican nominee in Virginia’s 7th District during the 2024 election cycle. Trump endorsed Anderson in that race.

Trump previously tapped Air Force veteran Michael Jensen for the ASD SO/LIC job but his nomination was withdrawn last month without explanation.

Christopher Maier was the last person to be Senate-confirmed as ASD SO/LIC. He served in that role during the Biden administration.

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The notice did not provide an explanation for the move, which occurred May 12.

White House spokespeople did not respond to DefenseScoop’s questions about the decision to withdraw the nomination.

Last month, CBS News reported that Jensen was being considered for another position with the White House National Security Council.

The official who holds the ASD SO/LIC job “oversees and advocates for Special Operations and Irregular Warfare throughout the Department of Defense to ensure these capabilities are resourced, ready, and properly employed in accordance with the National Defense Strategy,” according to a Defense Department description of the position.

They’re responsible for exercising “authority, direction, and control of all special operations peculiar issues relating to the organization, training, and equipping of special operations forces,” as well as advising the undersecretary of defense for policy on special ops and irregular warfare policy issues.

Jensen held leadership positions in the SOF community during his military career. Some of his most notable duty assignments included 26th Special Tactics Squadron commander and deputy commander of the 724th Special Tactics Group, which are part of Air Force Special Operations Command.

He also served as a strategy lead in the Air Force’s Checkmate office at the Pentagon.

Trump tapped Jensen for the ASD SO/LIC role in February, but the Senate Armed Services Committee didn’t hold a confirmation hearing for him before the nomination was withdrawn this week.

The duties of ASD SO/LIC are currently being performed by Colby Jenkins, an Army Special Forces veteran. Christopher Maier held that role in a Senate-confirmed capacity during the Biden administration.

At the SOF Week conference in Tampa, Florida, earlier this month, Jenkins said the special ops community needs “multidomain” formations that can wage high-tech warfare using AI, cyber and electronic warfare capabilities, among other tools, according to a Defense Department news release.

“The future of SOF is relentless: smaller teams, faster decisions, smarter systems [and] harder targets,” Jenkins said.

He noted that commandos’ know-how and human performance on the battlefield will also be critical.

“Because in the end, it is not the weapon, the drone, or the system that wins the contest. It is the person who knows when and how to use all of that technology and who refuses to quit; that person secures victory for us,” Jenkins said, according to the release.

In February, U.S. Special Operations Command published an updated strategy called “SOF Renaissance,” that lays out SOCOM’s vision for how the force needs to transform to meet future challenges by adopting new technologies and other reforms, including modernization efforts geared toward surface and subsurface maritime platforms; next-generation intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; mission command systems; and collaborative and autonomous unmanned systems.

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The traditional term “triad,” in U.S. military parlance, refers to the air-, land- and sea-based legs of the Pentagon’s nuclear arsenal. The Army began conceptualizing a new triad over a year ago as a partnership between the unique — and global — capabilities of space, cyber and SOF.

“I think we’re beginning to explain it better. I think it’s still largely a concept at this point. And while I give huge credit to [Lt. Gen.] Jon Braga and [Army Special Operations Command] for really leading within the Army, I think Special Operations Command at that kind of joint SOF level, is increasingly demonstrating leadership in this space,” Chris Maier, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, said at the NDIA SO/LIC Symposium Tuesday.

“I think we are going to need to fill out more of what we mean by this and … really show what this means and show how [it] closes kill chains or solves problems for the joint force beyond just something that is unique,” he said.

Officials had discussed the notion of the triad beginning to blossom at the joint level between U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Space Command. However, Maier noted that although the SOF and cyber relationship is well established, space might be harder to integrate.

“I think we have more success in a lot more places we can point to on SOF-cyber, because, frankly, cyber has been around longer and it’s more user friendly,” he said. “Space is, I think, from my perspective — and I say this as humbly as I can, because I’m certainly not a space expert — but I think that’s going to be the harder piece of this triad to bring in.”

Special operations forces have long utilized cyber and related signals intelligence capabilities to track targets by gaining access to their cell phones and other devices as well as using other cyber tools to perform various tasks.

There is an appetite to flesh out the new triad concept at the joint level, Maier said, noting that leadership of each community is on board with it.

The Army, for its part, has said it aims to double the amount of experimentation with the triad over the next year, advancing the model and techniques to inform future doctrine for operations and the service’s warfighting concept for 2030-2040.

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