This article was featured on i95Business, February, 2026

The New Asymmetric Threat

Imagine the scene, playing out in a secure command center half a world away: a high-altitude surveillance drone, one of your company’s flagship products, is providing critical overwatch in a contested region.

The video feed is stable, the telemetry nominal. But it’s a lie. Miles above the earth, the drone’s behavior has subtly changed. Its sensor is no longer pointed at the target of interest but is instead feeding a sophisticated, AI-generated loop of old footage back to the operator. The drone itself, now a ghost in the machine, has been redirected. The commander is not just blind; they are being actively deceived by the very asset they trust to provide clarity.

This is not science fiction. This is the new reality of asymmetric warfare, where the battle is for control, data, and trust. For leaders in the unmanned and autonomous vehicle industry, this scenario should serve as a stark reminder of a fundamental truth: for your products, a cyber breach is never just a data breach. It is a potential kinetic event.

Your competitors in other practice areas of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) worry about schematics being stolen and intellectual property for sale on the dark web. You face a far more profound risk: that the systems you build could be hijacked, spoofed, or turned against the mission they were designed to serve - without you even knowing it is happening until too late.

In this high-stakes environment, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) must be viewed through a new lens. It is not an IT compliance program to be endured; it is a program based on a strong framework (NIST SP 800-171) to be embraced. CMMC is less a test of your technology and more an assessment of your company’s habits and practices throughout the organization. It’s designed to verify not just that you have security procedures written down, but that those procedures have become the ingrained, daily reality of how your business operates. The controls that CMMC reviews are a line of defense that ensures your code, IP, and CUI never become an adversary’s kinetic weapon.

The Anatomy of a UxV Cyberattack

To defend your systems, you must first think like those who wish to defeat them. An adversary doesn’t just want to steal your intellectual property; they want to undermine the operational integrity of your platforms. Their methods are tailored to the unique nature of unmanned systems, targeting the fragile chain of trust that exists between operator, machine, and data.

Command & Control (C2) Hijacking: The most direct attack. By compromising the ground station, either through a phishing attack on an operator or by exploiting a network vulnerability, an adversary can gain unauthorized access. From there, they can issue malicious commands: altering flight paths, disabling sensors, or in the worst-case scenario, initiating a self-destruct or return-to-base sequence at a critical moment.

Malicious Firmware & Software Updates: Your drones are not static hardware; they are dynamic software platforms. This is a strength, but also a vulnerability. An adversary who compromises your development pipeline can inject malicious code into a routine firmware update. This “supply chain” attack can create a persistent backdoor, degrade performance, or install logic bombs that activate only when the vehicle crosses a certain geographic coordinate. This underscores the importance of working with subcontractors and suppliers who have the same high standards.

Navigation & Sensor Deception: Unmanned systems rely on a stream of data to understand the world. By spoofing GPS signals, an attacker can feed false location data to the vehicle, causing it to drift miles off course without the operator’s knowledge. Similarly, they can attack the sensor feeds, injecting false targets into radar data or manipulating video streams to hide threats. The goal is to make the drone an unreliable witness, eroding the operator’s trust and crippling its intelligence-gathering capabilities.

CMMC as the Mission Assurance Playbook

Viewing these threats, it becomes clear that CMMC is not a bureaucratic checklist. It is a direct, strategic countermeasure to the very tactics our adversaries employ. A visionary leader sees past the control numbers and recognizes them for what they are: the building blocks on which a truly resilient and trustworthy autonomous system can be built.

Preventing C2 Hijacking: This is the domain of Access Control (AC) and Identification & Authentication (IA). When you implement multi-factor authentication on your ground control systems, you are not just checking a box for control IA.L2-3.5.3. You are building a digital gatehouse that makes it exponentially harder for an unauthorized user to get their hands on the virtual “stick and rudder.”

Preventing Malicious Updates: This is where System & Information Integrity (SI) and Configuration Management (CM) become paramount. The CMMC requirement to establish baseline configurations (CM.L2-3.4.1) and to identify and correct system flaws (SI.L2-3.14.1) is your defense against supply chain attacks. It ensures the code you push to your fleet is verifiably the code you intended, free from tampering.

Preventing Data Link Interception: An unencrypted data link between a drone and its operator is the modern equivalent of shouting secrets across a crowded room. The CMMC controls in System and Communications Protection (SC), particularly those requiring FIPS-validated cryptography, are non-negotiable. They transform your data stream from a vulnerable broadcast into a secure, private channel, ensuring the integrity of the information that drives mission-critical decisions.

From our perspective as C3PAO assessors, the pattern is clear. We’ve seen companies with brilliant aeronautical engineering and revolutionary AI that have failed to implement basic cryptographic controls on their data links. CMMC forces a holistic view of security. Users who access your systems will undergo background checks, are required to follow policies, and are given specific permission sets all BEFORE they multi-factor authenticate to access the information system and the drone’s antenna.

The Urgency of Action: Speed, Timelines, and Securing Your Place

Understanding the stakes is the first step. Acting with the requisite speed is the next. The first phase of CMMC rolled out, starting November 10th, 2025. As part of the phased rollout, all organizations that want to win contracts will need to be Level 2 certified by 2028. During 2025, 559 certifications were issued, along with 29 Conditional Certifications.

For a complex UxV company, achieving CMMC Level 2 is not a 90-day project. It is a 12-to-18-month strategic journey. Think of it not as painting a house, but as building one. You must first survey the land (scoping your environment and understanding how CUI flows), then design the fortifications (creating a secure architecture to secure CUI), and build the walls brick by brick (implementing the controls throughout the organization). This involves architectural changes, cultural shifts, and meticulous documentation. It cannot be rushed.

This reality creates a second, more immediate challenge: scarcity. There are thousands of companies in the Defense Industrial Base that will require a CMMC assessment in the coming years, but there are only a limited number of authorized C3PAOs staffed by certified Lead Assessors to conduct them.

Waiting to engage a C3PAO until you believe you are “100% ready” is a critical strategic error. The most forward-thinking leaders are acting now. They are engaging with C3PAOs not for an immediate assessment, but to get into the queue, to secure their “launch window.” Doing so de-risks their future bids and sends a powerful signal to the DoD and prime contractors that they are a mature, reliable partner. Delay is no longer a viable

A Legacy of Trust

Your products operate at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds. They are more than just hardware; they are trusted autonomous agents, deployed in environments where failure is not an option. The ultimate measure of your success is not just the sophistication of your technology, but the unwavering trust your customers place in it.

A CMMC certification shows your commitment to safety and security, your dedication to upholding our nation’s future, and demonstrates integrity to your team and colleagues.

The leaders who will define the future of the unmanned systems industry are those who see this clearly. They understand that implementing robust cybersecurity and compliance programming is not a cost center, but a competitive differentiator. They know that preparing for an assessment is not a distraction from the mission, but an integral part of ensuring it.

By embracing this challenge with vision and urgency, you are not just preparing to pass an assessment. You are hardening your systems against a number of determined adversaries. Importantly, you are protecting the warfighter who depends on your technology. You are building a legacy of trust that will be the true foundation of your company’s success for decades to come. The time to build that legacy is now.