President Obama has nominated Maj. Gen. Robert Otto for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general for his new assignment as deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance in Air Force headquarters, announced the Pentagon on April 11. Otto has been commander of the Air Force ISR Agency at JBSA-Lackland, Tex., since July 2011. If the Senate confirms his nomination, Otto would replace Lt. Gen. Larry James, who has been the Air Force’s top ISR official since January 2011.James, a 1978 Air Force Academy graduate, is retiring.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
