(Bloomberg) -- US Army General Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, will step down in early February, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Nakasone will also leave his roles as head of US Cyber Command and Central Security Service. He was expected to retire from those posts last year, but his departure was held up by delays in Senate approval for the nomination of his replacement, US Air Force Lieutenant General Timothy Haugh. That approval occurred last month.

A NSA spokesman said there wasn’t a confirmed date for Nakasone’s departure. 

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“I know he is leaving because his replacement just got confirmed,” said Senator Angus King, Independent from Maine. “I wish he would stay, it’s unfortunate.”

Nakasone, a native of White Bear Lake, Minnesota who became NSA director in 2018, has warned about the growing threats to the US from China. 

China is “the generational challenge that we will address, our children will address, our grandchildren are going to address,” Nakasone said during an event at a Washington think tank last summer. 

He also presided over the creation of an Artificial Intelligence Security Center at the NSA, that the Defense Department said would “become the focal point for developing best practices, evaluation methodology and risk frameworks with the aim of promoting the secure adoption of new AI capabilities across the national security enterprise and the defense industrial base.”  

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