Texas hosts the second-largest Defense Industrial Base in the country — JBSA, NAS Fort Worth JRB, Red River Army Depot, Corpus Christi NAS, plus ~3,000 active Texas defense suppliers per DoD OUSD(A&S) DIB supplier data. Volt Typhoon (PRC state-sponsored) has pre-positioned inside the U.S. DIB since 2021 per CISA/NSA Joint Advisory AA24-038A. Booz Allen's DIB scale analysis documents $1.4T in annual DoD prime contracting flows that sit one Tier 2/3 network compromise away from a supply-chain cascade.
CMMC 2.0 32 CFR Part 170 Phase 2 enforcement starts November 2026. DFARS 252.204-7021 makes CMMC certification a condition of award on every DoD contract. The 72-hour DIBNet cyber-incident reporting clock under DFARS 252.204-7012 starts from discovery, not detection. NIST SP 800-171 Rev 2 mandates 110 controls across 14 families for L2. ITAR §120–130 export-controlled technical data on shop-floor Solidworks/AutoCAD workstations is CUI in most DoD contract contexts — but ITAR is not satisfied by CMMC alone, and requires separate State Department DDTC notification on unauthorized exports. False Claims Act qui tam exposure on unencrypted CUI per recent DoD settlements is the second-order liability.
30-minute IR SLA. SDVOSB-certified. TX-resident analysts. CMMC gap authorship, DFARS 72-hr disclosure workflow authorship, SPRS score documentation.
Five verified anchors frame why CMMC Phase 2 enforcement is the operational event of 2026 for every TX defense contractor — from the largest prime to the smallest Tier 3 machine shop with shop-floor Solidworks geometry flagged ITAR-controlled. Each is documented in the public record; each has a direct consequence for your firm.
TX defense contractors do not face one regulatory framework — they face five overlapping ones, each with its own enforcement arm and its own penalty structure. Each track independently enforceable. Each track capable of pulling a contract, blocking an award, or landing you in FCA qui tam litigation.
Generic EDR misses the TX defense contractor attack surface because the workflow-specific risks don't exist in any other sector. The unique surface area:
CoreRecon is an SDVOSB-certified MSSP purpose-built for the TX DIB. We deliver CMMC L2 coverage in tier — Sentinel covers the awareness, access, and logging domains; Fortress adds the technical controls that move SPRS scores above 90; Command includes the C3PAO-ready SSP, POA&M management, and the 30-min DFARS 7012 72-hr disclosure workflow that satisfies the most rigorous DoD prime requirements.
Sentinel ($89), Fortress ($109–$129), and Command ($2,500+) tiers cover different control families. The 8 controls below are the ones that distinguish a CMMC-capable SOC from a generic enterprise MDR. Each maps to a specific NIST SP 800-171 control family.
SDVOSB certification counts toward DFARS 252.219-7003 small-business subcontracting goals on every DoD prime contract. When a DoD prime bundles CoreRecon managed SOC into their subcontract stack, it simultaneously hardens their DIB supply chain's CMMC posture (reducing their flow-down liability) AND counts toward their SDVOSB utilization goal. No other Texas MSSP can make that sentence true.
This roadmap assumes a typical 50–250 endpoint TX defense contractor with existing SPRS submission in PIEE and a partial NIST SP 800-171 baseline. Adjust for your actuals — but the sequencing (identity → segmentation → CMMC gap authorship → C3PAO readiness) is the pattern most TX firms follow.
| Phase | Focus | Key Deliverables |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1–30 | Identity & Access Hardening | Phishing-resistant MFA on all CMMC-scope systems; admin account inventory; ITAR-flagged workstation access review; CMMC L2 baseline scoping against NARA CUI Registry; FedRAMP-equivalent cloud assessment; quarterly SPRS submission to PIEE. |
| Day 31–60 | Detection & Segmentation | CUI VLAN segmentation; Solidworks/CAD workstation EDR coverage; GovWin/IUOO behavioral baseline; DCMA audit-period monitoring; DFARS 252.204-7012 72-hr DIBNet disclosure workflow authorship; i-ITAR DLP tagging on shop-floor geometry. |
| Day 61–90 | CMMC Phase 2 Readiness | SSP authored and BOM'd vs. CMMC assessment boundary; POA&M closed to ≤110 net SPRS; C3PAO readiness dry-run (Command tier); DFARS 252.204-7021 attestation prep; subcontractor flow-down audit packet; FCA qui tam exposure review. |
Three tiers. Per-endpoint. All include 24/7 SOC coverage, 30-min IR SLA, and CMMC gap authorship. Command tier is the C3PAO-ready path — SSP, POA&M, SPRS submission, and DFARS 72-hr DIBNet workflow authored by the vCISO.
Industry-average MSSP IR response: 1–4 hours. Volt Typhoon kill-chain window: 45–90 minutes per CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report. The DIBNet 72-hour clock starts from incident discovery, not detection. A 30-min containment SLA gives your DFARS 252.204-7012 disclosure team 71.5 hours to compose the DoD CIO-reviewer-accepted narrative. Anything slower than 30-min puts your disclosure team under clock pressure.
Almost certainly. DFARS 252.204-7021 requires CMMC Level 2 self-attestation (or C3PAO assessment for higher-risk designations) as a condition of contract performance for any DoD contract that handles CUI. The flow-down under DFARS 252.204-7020 means primes are required to include CMMC clauses in every subcontract where CUI flows downstream — and the prime is responsible for verifying subcontractor compliance. A Tier 2 supplier with 80 endpoints and any CUI-touching contract sits squarely in scope.
CMMC L1 covers 15 basic safeguarding controls aligned to FAR 52.204-21. CMMC L2 covers 110 NIST SP 800-171 Rev 2 controls across 14 families. The delta is 95 additional practices — but most of the lift is in the technical control families (Configuration Management, Identification & Authentication, System & Communications Protection, System & Information Integrity) plus the documentation artifacts (SSP, POA&M, incident response procedures). CoreRecon Fortress and Command tiers are built specifically to bridge this gap. A typical 80–150 endpoint firm moves from L1 to L2 SPRS self-attestation in 4–9 months.
Yes. The SSP required under NIST SP 800-171 and the supporting documentation (POA&M, IR plan, configuration baselines, access control matrix, ITAR data classification, FedRAMP-equivalent cloud architecture) is included as a Command-tier deliverable. We work with your prime's flow-down requirements, DFARS 252.204-7019/7020/7021 clauses, and any C3PAO-assessment-boundary specifics. The 9-document package is delivered in 8 weeks for most TX defense contractor environments.
Yes. DFARS 252.219-7003 mandates SDVOSB utilization goals in DoD contractor subcontracting plans, and ISR/SSR submissions track the spend. FAR Subpart 19.7 governs the broader small-business subcontracting framework. Primes have hard SDVOSB percentage targets that count separately from total small-business goals. Service-disabled veteran-owned status is verified through the VA's VetCert program — CoreRecon's VetCert record is active, current, and CVE-validated. DoD primes bundling CoreRecon SOC into their subcontract stack can claim that spend toward their SDVOSB utilization line.
Per CISA/NSA Joint Advisory AA24-038A, Volt Typhoon (PRC state-sponsored) maintains pre-positioned access in U.S. critical infrastructure AND the Defense Industrial Base. The actor lives off the land — using built-in Windows admin tools, network admin utilities, and legitimate remote management platforms rather than custom malware. The goal is presence, not destruction: live inside the contractor's network, collect CUI and ITAR-controlled technical data on a continuous basis, retain latent capability to disrupt during a geopolitical trigger event. Detection requires behavioral SOC monitoring, not signature-based EDR.
NIST SP 800-171 control 3.12.1 requires periodic security control assessment, and 3.12.2 requires a plan of action for control gaps. CMMC L2 self-assessments require an annual pen test scoped against the CMMC assessment boundary — C3PAO assessments require that plus the C3PAO's own assessment. CoreRecon Command tier includes an annual third-party penetration test as part of the C3PAO-readiness package; standalone pen tests are an added engagement. SPRS score documentation requires evidence of remediation and patching cadence from pen-test findings.
No. ITAR (22 CFR §§120–130) and CMMC (32 CFR Part 170) are complementary but distinct regimes. Most ITAR-controlled technical data in a DoD contract context qualifies as CUI — meaning CMMC controls protect your ITAR data — but ITAR compliance requires additional representations: registration with the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), approved export licenses for cross-border data flows, and separate cyber-incident notification to DDTC on unauthorized exports of controlled technical data. A cyber exfiltration of ITAR data is treated as an unauthorized export under 22 CFR §127. CoreRecon Command tier includes ITAR data classification tagging as part of the CUI scoping exercise but does not replace DDTC counsel.
We deliver a CMMC L2-equivalent posture review against all 110 NIST 800-171 practices, identify the gaps most likely to cost you contract awards, and deliver a prioritized remediation plan aligned to DFARS 252.204-7012 72-hr disclosure workflow readiness. No credit card. SDVOSB-certified. TX-resident analysts. 14-day delivery from contract start.
Free CMMC Posture Review — $2,500 Value →Delivered within 14 days • SDVOSB-certified • CMMC L2 specialists • TX-resident SOC