Beginning November 10, 2026, every contractor in the Defense Industrial Base handling Controlled Unclassified Information must achieve CMMC Level 2 certification. Pilot Systems, in partnership with Defense Cyber Solutions, guides you from gap analysis to certification-ready in a fraction of the time it takes most firms to figure it out alone.
CMMC 2.0 is being phased into DoD contracts on a published schedule. For most prime contractors and subcontractors handling Controlled Unclassified Information, certification will be a contract award requirement rather than a recommendation.
CMMC Level 2 certification by an authorized C3PAO becomes a condition of contract award for solicitations involving CUI.
Requirement expands to all applicable DoD solicitations and contract options. By the end of phase-in, certification is universally required across affected programs.
Most assessments take 6 to 12 months from kickoff to certification. Companies that wait are running out of runway.
Pilot Systems has guided automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and startups through some of the most demanding compliance regimes on earth — EPA emissions certification, CARB approval, NHTSA safety standards, ISO 26262 functional safety, and ISO/SAE 21434 automotive cybersecurity.
CMMC is a different acronym, but the discipline is the same: interpret a complex government framework, gap-analyze your current state, build the documentation, execute remediation, and survive a third-party audit. We have done this for forty years in the automotive sector. Through our partnership with Defense Cyber Solutions, we now bring that same approach to the Defense Industrial Base.
Every CMMC Level 2 engagement follows the same arc. Pilot performs the first four; the final step is, by federal mandate, an independent third-party audit. We prepare you so thoroughly that the C3PAO assessment is a confirmation, not a discovery.
We identify every system, process, and person handling Controlled Unclassified Information. The scope determines everything that follows. Get this wrong and you either over-certify (expensive) or under-certify (audit failure).
We evaluate your current state against all 110 NIST SP 800-171 practices across 14 security domains. You receive a detailed report showing which practices are met, which are partial, and which require remediation — with specific evidence for each finding.
We build a Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) that turns every gap into a specific task with an owner, a deadline, and a priority. Pilot can execute the remediation directly, work alongside your IT team, or hand off the plan for in-house execution — whichever fits your structure.
We produce the System Security Plan, evidence package, and supporting artifacts a C3PAO will demand on audit day. This is the deliverable that determines whether you pass or fail. Our automotive regulatory background shows here.
An independent Certified Third-Party Assessment Organization conducts the formal certification audit. By federal mandate, this step cannot be performed by your preparation team. Pilot stays engaged through the assessment to support evidence requests and respond to assessor questions.
CMMC Level 2 affects approximately 80,000 companies in the Defense Industrial Base. Pilot's CMMC service is built for three audiences in particular.
If you handle CUI as part of a prime contractor relationship, your prime is already asking when you will be certified. We have decades of experience working alongside Tier 1 and Tier 2 organizations and understand how compliance work fits into a busy supplier operation.
Many of our long-standing automotive clients are exploring or actively bidding on DoD contracts as defense electrification, ground vehicle modernization, and autonomous systems programs expand. We can guide companies we have known for years through this new regulatory regime.
Companies with 50 to 500 employees often have the technical capability to comply but lack the dedicated compliance staff to execute. We provide that staff for the duration of your CMMC project — and only for the duration of your CMMC project.
Pilot's CMMC practice is delivered in partnership with Defense Cyber Solutions, a cybersecurity firm focused on the Defense Industrial Base. The partnership combines Pilot's forty years of regulatory program management with Defense Cyber Solutions' deep NIST 800-171 expertise. You work with one engagement team. We coordinate the rest.
A 30-minute scoping call is the fastest way to understand where your organization stands against CMMC Level 2 and what the path to certification looks like. There is no charge for the scoping conversation, and no commitment beyond the call itself.
Schedule a Scoping Call