Redoubt Forge vs Telos Xacta.

Redoubt Forge and Telos Xacta both reduce the burden of government compliance. Xacta manages the authorization lifecycle: SSP generation, POA&M tracking, control inheritance, assessment scheduling, and documentation workflows across federal agencies and defense contractors. Redoubt Forge generates the security posture that those authorization documents describe, then produces the proof from running systems.

What Telos Xacta Does Well

Telos Corporation brings over 55 years of government technology experience, founded in 1969 in Ashburn, Virginia. Xacta is purpose-built for federal Risk Management Framework (RMF) and Assessment & Authorization (A&A) workflows. The platform has earned its position through decades of service to the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and civilian agencies. Telos is publicly traded on NASDAQ (TLS) with approximately $108 million in revenue.

The Xacta product family spans three platforms. Xacta 360 provides the core GRC engine for authorization management. Xacta.io adds continuous monitoring capabilities. Xacta.ai, launched in 2025 with its first enterprise federal deployment, brings machine learning to compliance mapping and narrative generation. The full Xacta suite achieved FedRAMP High authorization in April 2026. Xacta supports over 100 regulations including NIST 800-53, RMF, CMMC Level 1 through Level 3, FedRAMP, and CNSSI 1253.

Xacta's deployment options reflect its government heritage. AWS GovCloud, on-premises, air-gapped, and AMI deployment are all supported. The US Air Force selected Xacta for enterprise-wide deployment with a $3.7 million annual contract renewal. The Missile Defense Agency awarded Telos a position on the SHIELD IDIQ with a $151 billion ceiling value. These are not theoretical capabilities; they represent proven deployments in some of the most demanding environments in the federal government.

What Redoubt Forge Does

Redoubt Forge is a secure operations platform that spans four phases most compliance tools treat separately or ignore entirely.

Vanguard runs 14 native scanner types: SAST across multiple languages, DAST, SCA, secret scanning, container image scanning, STIG validation against 20+ technical benchmarks, CIS Benchmark scanning for OS, cloud, container, database, and web server targets, fuzzing, and API security. Xacta ingests scan results from external SCAP scanners and vulnerability tools. Redoubt Forge produces the scan results natively and maps them directly to framework controls.

Armory provides hardened Terraform modules pre-configured for specific framework controls. Garrison tracks your connected estate as infrastructure is provisioned. Deploy packs, capability packs, and IaC modules let you provision infrastructure that meets controls from the start. Xacta tracks authorization status of systems; Redoubt Forge hardens the systems themselves.

Sentinel monitors infrastructure through event-driven detection. When a security group changes, an IAM policy updates, or a new resource deploys, Sentinel detects the change, re-evaluates posture against all mapped frameworks, and flags findings in Citadel. Evidence is generated from running systems on every change.

Rampart maps security posture to any framework and generates C3PAO-ready and 3PAO-ready assessment packages. Artificer produces OSCAL-formatted authorization packages for FedRAMP 20x: SSP, SAR, SAP, and POA&M documents with immutable evidence chains linking every control to the infrastructure state that satisfies it.

Where Both Platforms Overlap

Both platforms support NIST 800-53, RMF, CMMC, FedRAMP, and CNSSI 1253. Both manage authorization workflows. Both generate SSP and POA&M documents. Both deploy in government environments including AWS GovCloud and air-gapped networks. Both serve defense contractors and federal agencies. The framework coverage overlap in the government space is substantial. Both platforms take government compliance seriously, and both have invested deeply in the frameworks that matter most to federal customers.

How Redoubt Forge Goes Further

Xacta ingests scan results from external SCAP scanners and vulnerability assessment tools. It tracks STIG compliance status from imported results. Redoubt Forge runs 14 native scanner types through Vanguard, including DISA STIG validation against 20+ technical benchmarks and CIS Benchmark scanning. Native scanning eliminates the gap between security assessment and compliance documentation. You do not need separate scanning tools feeding into a separate compliance platform.

Xacta does not provision or harden infrastructure. It manages the authorization status of systems that other tools build. Redoubt Forge's Armory provides hardened Terraform modules pre-configured for specific framework controls. Garrison tracks your connected estate as resources are provisioned. You do not just document that controls exist; you deploy infrastructure that implements them.

Xacta.io provides continuous monitoring through periodic data collection. Redoubt Forge's Sentinel monitors infrastructure through event-driven detection. When a security group changes, an IAM policy updates, or a new resource deploys, Sentinel detects the change and re-evaluates posture against all mapped frameworks in real time. Evidence is generated from running systems on every change, not collected on a monitoring cycle.

Xacta is focused on government frameworks. SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS are not primary use cases. Redoubt Forge covers both commercial and government frameworks with the same platform. Organizations that need CMMC for their defense contracts and SOC 2 for their commercial customers do not need two separate platforms.

Redoubt Forge publishes all pricing: five tiers from $49/mo (Developer) to $2,499/mo (Enterprise), with all features, add-on costs, and seat prices listed. Xacta is sold through government contract vehicles and enterprise procurement. A US Air Force contract renewal was valued at $3.7 million per year. Published pricing means small defense contractors can access CMMC, FedRAMP, and NIST 800-171 compliance without enterprise contract negotiation.

When to Choose Telos Xacta

If you are a federal agency managing authorization workflows across hundreds of systems. If you need a platform with FedRAMP High authorization and a proven track record in DoD and Intelligence Community environments. If you need on-premises or AMI deployment within classified boundaries. If your compliance team manages RMF packages and needs deep A&A workflow automation. Xacta has earned its position through decades of government service. It is the standard for federal authorization management.

When to Choose Redoubt Forge

If you need the security posture that authorization documents describe, not just the documents. If you need native scanning that validates DISA STIGs and CIS Benchmarks against your actual infrastructure. If you need to build compliant infrastructure through hardened Terraform modules, not just track its authorization status. If you need event-driven continuous monitoring that eliminates evidence decay. If you need commercial AND government frameworks in a single platform. If you need published pricing accessible to small defense contractors at $49/mo instead of government contract pricing.

Is Telos Xacta still actively developed?

Yes. Xacta.ai launched in 2025 with its first enterprise federal deployment. The full Xacta suite achieved FedRAMP High authorization in April 2026. Telos continues active development across the Xacta 360, Xacta.io, and Xacta.ai product family. The platform remains a standard for federal authorization management.

Does Xacta include native vulnerability scanning?

No. Xacta ingests results from SCAP scanners and vulnerability assessment tools. It tracks compliance status from imported scan data but does not perform scanning itself. Redoubt Forge includes 14 native scanner types through Vanguard, including DISA STIG validation against 20+ benchmarks and CIS Benchmark scanning.

How does Xacta's RMF support compare to Redoubt Forge?

Xacta has deep RMF and A&A workflow capabilities: SSP generation, POA&M tracking, control inheritance, overlay management, and assessment scheduling. These workflows have been refined across decades of federal deployments. Redoubt Forge maps security posture to RMF requirements and generates authorization packages from running systems. Different approaches to the same outcome: one manages the documentation, the other generates the posture the documentation describes.

Does Xacta support commercial frameworks like SOC 2 or ISO 27001?

Xacta is focused on government frameworks: NIST 800-53, RMF, CMMC, FedRAMP, and CNSSI 1253. SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS are not primary use cases. Redoubt Forge covers both commercial and government frameworks in a single platform.

Which platform is better for small defense contractors?

Xacta is priced for federal agencies and large contractors through government contract vehicles and enterprise procurement. Redoubt Forge publishes pricing from $49/mo with government framework support at every tier. Small defense contractors can access CMMC, FedRAMP, and NIST 800-171 compliance without enterprise contract negotiation.