PPP Development, CPI Identification & Security Engineering. The authoritative compliance infrastructure for DoDI 5000.83 Program Protection. Transform the complex, multi-milestone PPP lifecycle into a managed workflow—from Critical Program Information identification through horizontal protection coordination and milestone submission.
Required PPP submission lead time before MDA reviews
Formal PPP submissions through acquisition lifecycle
AT Concept Plan lead time before Milestone A
Standard AT plan submission lead time at subsequent milestones
Program Protection Plans are living artifacts that must evolve through five formal submissions. Each submission requires updates reflecting Systems Engineering Technical Review outcomes, horizontal protection analysis, and evolving threat assessments.
USD(R&E) serves as approval authority for programs where the Defense Acquisition Executive is the Milestone Decision Authority, with submissions required 45 calendar days before decision reviews.
Most programs treat PPPs as documents to be written rather than systems to be managed. Security engineers inherit previous versions without context. CPI identification decisions become disconnected from engineering trade-offs. Horizontal protection analysis happens too late to influence design. The result is expensive retrofits after CDR and PPP submissions that fail first review.
CPI identification follows a four-step process under DoDI 5200.39. The Acquisition Security Database on SIPRNet serves as the DoD-wide repository for CPI data and supports horizontal protection analysis across programs sharing similar technologies.
Technology elements exceeding adversary capability thresholds
Risk through consequence-exposure-threat analysis
Protection measures proportional to risk
Effectiveness throughout the lifecycle
Threshold analysis comparing system attributes against technology capability baselines
Consequence modeling assessing mission impact, countermeasure development costs, and competitive advantage duration
Protection measure selection with cost-benefit analysis and implementation timeline estimation
Lifecycle monitoring with automated alerts for threshold changes or emerging threat indicators
Thalorin automates CPI candidate identification through rules-based algorithms comparing system attributes against known technology thresholds. The platform maintains traceability from mission requirements through functional decomposition to specific CPI elements, ensuring protection decisions remain connected to operational impact.
Horizontal protection ensures equivalent protection for similar CPI across different acquisition programs. When one program makes a protection decision in isolation, it may create vulnerabilities in other programs sharing similar technologies.
The Defense Intelligence Agency conducts horizontal analysis to identify these gaps, but late discovery forces expensive retrofits after Critical Design Review.
Before finalizing CPI protection decisions, program offices receive automated alerts identifying similar CPI in other programs and their current protection postures. This enables coordinated protection strategies before decisions become locked into engineering baselines.
GAO audits repeatedly identify the same failure pattern: Program Managers assign PPP responsibility to cybersecurity personnel rather than systems security engineers. The resulting documents are disconnected from engineering trade-offs.
Well-written PPPs fail to translate into Statement of Work requirements because protection measures are not contractually specified. Contractors cannot implement what contracts do not require.
Thalorin positions program protection as an engineering discipline integrated with Integrated Product Teams. PPP requirements flow directly into contract language generators. Protection measures link to specific engineering trade studies. Security engineering artifacts integrate with the broader systems engineering baseline, ensuring protection decisions survive the transition from document to implementation.
When CPI exists, Anti-Tamper plans become mandatory PPP components. The Secretary of the Air Force serves as DoD Executive Agent for AT through SAF/AQL.
Thalorin manages the complete AT lifecycle within the broader PPP workflow. Automated timeline tracking ensures submissions reach the AT Executive Agent on schedule. For Foreign Military Sales programs, timelines automatically adjust to Purchase Authorization and Letter of Acceptance milestones.
Program Protection evolves through every acquisition phase. Thalorin's milestone-driven workflow engine tracks PPP requirements against acquisition decision points. Automated notifications alert teams to upcoming submission deadlines.
Document generation pulls current program data into milestone-appropriate templates. Approval workflows route submissions through Component PPP offices to USD(R&E) with full status visibility.
Structured process for identifying, assessing, and documenting Critical Program Information with threshold analysis and risk scoring
ASDB integration for cross-program CPI visibility and protection gap identification before engineering lock
Template-driven generation with auto-population from program data and milestone-specific formatting per Defense Acquisition Guidebook Chapter 9
Complete AT lifecycle management from concept through verification and validation with automated timeline tracking
SCG creation with classification element tracking, declassification scheduling, and OCA coordination
CI coordination with threat assessment linkage and DIA horizontal analysis integration
DoDI 5000.82 compliance with RMF integration and System Security Plan coordination
Automated Statement of Work language, CDRL generation, and DD254 requirements from PPP protection measures
Complete decision history with rationale capture for program protection assessments and milestone reviews
Workflow management through Component offices to USD(R&E) with deadline tracking and status dashboards
See how Thalorin manages the complete PPP lifecycle—from CPI identification through milestone submission—with a walkthrough tailored to your acquisition program.