The modern battlefield has been changed forever.
Military advantage no longer comes solely from the size of a standing army, nor from sheer firepower. Instead, it flows through infrastructure resilience: power grids, fiber, supply chains, AI systems, and the data that ties them all together.
Our adversaries are aware of this and are honing their skills at this very moment. Their target: the vulnerabilities, the weak links in the chain where cyber meets physical, and where prime meets subcontractor.
Evolving Threats in the Modern Battlefield
A few of these examples can be seen in the current ongoing conflicts.
Drone Warfare
AI-enabled drones have become a game-changing, data-driven weapon platform in the last few years. Ukrainian drone pilots have successfully destroyed multi-million dollar Russian assets with a sub-$500 drone.
Lightweight models use onboard vision and navigation algorithms to spot targets and fly with some degree of autonomy. However, data manipulation can defeat them.
Spoofing satellite coordinates has caused Russian Shahed drones to veer off course. Hackers can manipulate the return-to-home feature, returning the weapons to the sender.
As a result, cybersecurity is now table stakes for a serious drone program.
Cyber and Kinetic are Converging
Russia’s Sandworm unit has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s grid, demonstrating OT-level tradecraft that can trip substations and, in at least one case, coincide with missile strikes. Outages and ongoing attempts to take down systems demonstrate how cyber actions can amplify physical attacks and disrupt production without an expensive and drawn-out campaign. This threat is only amplified with the recent convergence of AI.
Pre-Positioning
Operators, like the PRC-sponsored Volt Typhoon are utilizing “live off the land” techniques, blending into normal admin activity within existing systems. The objective is to pre-position an attack for a calculated and well-timed disruption. This creative and long-game tactic can sabotage logistics, communications, and production when it matters most.
We can assume more of these programs are running right now, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Ransomware & Double Extortion
Manufacturing and supply chain are the heart of many DIB. This is why they have been the most-attacked industries for a few years now. The recovery costs commonly reach seven figures, and that's not including the downtime disruption.
To maximize their impact, Ransomware has shifted from the kind of smash-and-grab encryption to enterprise-scale extortion that cripples supply chains. “Double extortion” techniques can add to this, turning IT incidents into a massive operational crisis. Bad actors seek out these high-leverage opportunities as they provide a bigger bang for the buck, inflicting greater damage across networks.
Espionage and CUI/IP theft
U.S. cyber leaders continue to warn that state actors are systematically targeting the DIB to steal designs and intellectual property, degrade programs, and threaten operational advantage.
CMMC Helps the DIB Fight Back
These and an endless roadmap of data-centric attacks lie in our future, and this is why the time is right to make cybersecurity mission-critical.
CMMC gives the DIB a verifiable baseline to harden its security posture across the network. It lays the foundation for ongoing resilience and evolution as new threats emerge.
If you touch the mission anywhere, you’re part of the battlefield. CMMC verification is now a business-continuity imperative and a national-security obligation.
