Why Compliance-Driven Resilience Is the New Standard for Defense Base Readiness

Editor's Note: Michael Brooks, featured in Deltek's 2025 GovCon Clarity Study, shares his expert insights on cybersecurity and CMMC for GovCons that are building their cyber and compliance strategies during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

There I was…commanding US cyber operations overseas, thinking to myself, how did I end up here?

I spent over twenty years of my career in the Air Force as a cyber operator and leader. In these demanding operational environments, our mission readiness wasn't theoretical, it was real. And our results mattered.

Every organization, every unit and military member trains and prepares against a clear standard: the Mission Essential Task List (METL). If you couldn't perform your METL, you didn’t deploy. You were on the sidelines. The same is true today across the Defense Industrial Base but with different uniforms and lanyards.

Currently, in my work with defense contractors, the same principle of mission readiness is playing out, not on a battlefield, but in federal acquisition.The message is clear: Cybersecurity is now a mission-essential business capability, a table stakes METL for defense vendors.

What Is a METL and How Does It Apply to GovCon?

In military terms, a METL defines the essential tasks a unit must execute to accomplish its mission. It's how readiness is assessed and enforced.

GovCon businesses, whether large primes or small subs, now face a similar mandate: If you handle Federal Contact Information (FCI) or Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), you must demonstrate you can protect it.

That's no longer a checkbox exercise. Cybersecurity has become a critical business capability, and like any mission-essential capability, it must be led, measured and verified.

Introducing Compliance-Driven Resilience

Let’s talk about what cyber maturity really means in the government contracting space.

The Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requires full implementation of 110 security controls across 14 domains, grounded in NIST SP 800-171 for Level 2. These aren't technical suggestions, they're the DoD's formal definition of adequate security for non-federal information systems storing, processing, or transmitting Controlled Unclassified Information.

Implementing these controls isn't just about compliance, it's about delivering on the trust your customer places in you. That's why it's important to see the outcome of CMMC for what it provides to your business: Compliance-driven resilience.

This resilience is the operational strength, visibility, and credibility that comes from aligning your business with a proven cybersecurity standard (NIST 800-171) and being able to demonstrate it with confidence. When you're resilient, you're not just prepared for an audit, you're mission ready.

More importantly, your cybersecurity efforts earn the trust of primes, partners, and government customers across the supply chain and on the battlefield.

What's In It for GovCon Leaders?

If you lead a GovCon firm, here’s 5 reasons why this compliance shift matters for you, not in theory, but in contracts, cash flow, and credibility:

1. You Stay in the Fight

CMMC-aligned language is already showing up in solicitations. Primes are vetting their supply chains more rigorously. And contracting officers are asking harder questions about security posture.

Companies that have cybersecurity baked into their business model don't scramble. They stay eligible.

2. You Become a Go-To Partner

Primes are under pressure to secure their programs. If your company can’t demonstrate your cybersecurity posture, it introduces risk and that risk can cost you a seat at the table.

Compliance-driven resilience makes teaming decisions faster, easier and safer.

3. You Protect Your Leadership Team

Submitting SPRS (Supplier Performance Risk System) scores on your cyber compliance posture or self-attesting to CMMC without evidence isn’t just risky, it’s a liability. False Claims Act enforcement is real, and whistleblowers are stepping up.

Today’s leading GovCon firms can back up what they claim and protect their name.

4. You Lead Cyber From the Top

CMMC requires executive-level sign-off. That means cyber readiness is no longer just an IT function, it’s a leadership function.

To succeed in the digital era, GovCon firms must integrate cybersecurity into how they plan, govern, and grow.

5. You Build Operational Maturity

CMMC doesn’t just test your controls, it improves your operations. It forces better documentation, decision-making, and accountability across your business.

Compliance-driven resilience isn’t about passing assessments; it’s about building trust through them.

The Standard Has Been Set and the Rollout Has Begun

Cybersecurity compliance in the defense base is not a future problem. It's already happening and many of the trusted names in the defense base are responding:

• Over 200 companies are fully certified at CMMC Level 2
• Hundreds more are actively pursuing certification
• Major primes are requiring security documentation from subs
• Programs are building cyber into award decisions and recompetes

And the DoD has confirmed a phased rollout of CMMC requirements, with implementation starting on November 10, 2025.

The message is clear: This is no longer a suggestion. It's a standard or trust. A mission essential task. If you wait until it's in the RFP to get your cyber compliance house in order, you've already lost ground. Now is the time to act, while you can shape your readiness with intention, not panic or firefighting.

Shared Ground: Cybersecurity as a Matter of Trust

As Americans, we believe in protecting what matters: our people, our values, and the systems that support both. That belief doesn't stop at the edge of a battlefield. It carries into every contractor, supplier, and integrator who supports the mission behind the scenes.

CMMC is a formal expression of that belief, a cybersecurity trust model for the defense supply chain.

Make no mistake, this is not about creating red tape. It's about ensuring that when sensitive data moves, it moves safely. When we ask a company to support a mission, they're equipped to do so: securely, reliably, and honorably. Compliance-driven resilience is how we operationalize that trust and what our warfighters deserve.

Final Thought: Make Cyber Readiness Part of Your METL

You wouldn't deploy a unit that couldn't meet its METL. You shouldn't operate a defense-focused business that can't meet cyber standards. If you're serious about sustaining and growing your role in the defense sector, this isn't optional; it's mission critical.

Here's the good news: you don't have to build this overnight. You build it like everything else worth doing, with leadership, strategy, and execution. That's how you stop managing the audit and start leading through the mission. Build your edge there. The mission continues…