Insights · Government Contracting · 5 min read · 2026-06-17

CMMC for Small Primes: Assessor-Ready Without Compliance Theater

Small defense primes get sold generic SSP templates that fall apart the moment an assessor asks how a control works in your environment.

By Alexander Morrow, Founder & CEO · Blackbox Intelligence Group

Why templates fail

CMMC readiness is not a document exercise. Assessors want evidence that NIST 800-171 controls are implemented in your systems — logging, identity, configuration, incident response — not copied policy language.

The phased path we use

Gap assessment against your actual environment. SSP and POA&M written for your systems. Evidence collection for assessor interviews. Remediation on identity, logging, and boundary controls first.

What good looks like

You can explain every high-risk gap, who owns closure, and what evidence exists today. You are not claiming certification — you are demonstrating operational security an assessor can verify.