SCP-1543 — SCP-1543 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-1543 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-1543

Expected annual

$1.7M

One-time setup

$2.8M

Annual recurring

$1.7M

Personnel

6.5

Initial setup costs are dominated by public-education campaign, telecom mitigation, and potential extraction fit-out (~$2.85M one-time). Annual operating costs are driven by personnel, legal/PR, and recurring telecom/monitoring/PSA costs (~$1.69M/yr).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.8M

Public Education Campaign $750K

[#5] Initial rollout of PSAs, creative production, translations and media buys.

Extraction Operation $600K

[#11] One-time expeditionary insertion/temporary forward base and extraction operation costs.

Telecom Engagement Implementation $300K

[#6] One-time negotiation/implementation costs with carriers/regulators and consultancy to implement routing/blacklisting/intercept messages.

Containment Cell Fitout $275K

[#11] One-time secure containment cell fit-out to Foundation standards (if SCP-1543-1 is brought on-site).

Facilities $238K

[#1, #15] Construction/modification of a secure communications room (acoustic treatment, soundproofing) and facility modification costs for a small secure suite if an on-site holding is required.

Contingency Pool $200K

[#18] One-time allocation to establish a contingency/reserve pool for unexpected high-cost events or rapid-response needs.

Surveillance And Recon $150K

[#8] One-time costs for full reconnaissance phase: satellite tasking, high-res imagery purchases and drone surveys.

Medical Extraction $150K

[#10] Potential one-time extraction & hospitalization costs (initial medevac/hospital intake if extraction occurs).

Equipment $118K

[#1, #2, #12] Studio-quality microphones/UPS and room hardware (#1), hardened servers/SAN/NAS hardware (#2), and forensic workstation/licenses (#12).

Covert Resupply Setup $65K

[#9] Initial covert supply/resupply equipment & cache setup (drones/helicopters provisions, covert caches).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $0

[]

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $1.7M/yr

Staff Wages $625K/yr

[#3, #4] Core research & operations team payroll + benefits (~$475k) and 24/7 monitoring/on-call staffing (~$150k).

Public Education Campaign $275K/yr

[#5] Annual renewals, geotargeted buys and refreshes for PSAs and monitoring effectiveness.

Cover Story And Legal $248K/yr

[#7, #19] Covert outreach/legal retainers and family/witness handling/records redaction (~$187.5k + ~$60k).

Program Management Overhead $140K/yr

[#20] Administration, procurement, compliance and program-management overhead (~10–15% of program costs).

Research And Monitoring $105K/yr

[#8, #12, #13, #14] Ongoing remote monitoring/recontracting (~$30k/yr), forensic software/licenses & consultants (~$10k/yr), translation/linguistic contracts (~$40k/yr), and incident-exercise program (~$25k/yr).

Telecom Engagement $100K/yr

[#6] Ongoing compliance, updates, regulatory engagement and lobbying to maintain routing mitigations.

Logistics And Transport $80K/yr

[#16] Staff travel, emergency redeployment, and routine transport for meetings/reconnaissance (~$80k/yr).

It And Storage $30K/yr

[#2] Encrypted audio/video storage hosting, maintenance, audits and tape/archive rotation (~$30k/yr).

Contingency And Insurance $30K/yr

[#18] Ongoing insurance premiums and small contingency insurance (~$30k/yr).

Supplies And Consumables $28K/yr

[#1, #17] Secure communications room maintenance (~$1,500/yr) and field consumables/PPE/spare parts (~$26,000/yr).

Medical And Psych Care $25K/yr

[#10] Remote medical/psychological consultations and medication (~$25k/yr).

Facilities Maintenance $0/yr

[#11, #15] Ongoing on-site facility security/maintenance costs are conditional on extraction/on-site holding and set to 0 in baseline; see scenarios for extraction year impacts.

Covert Resupply Missions $0/yr

[#9] Recurring resupply costs are conditional on an ongoing in-situ sustainment program; set to 0 for baseline (handled in scenarios if executed).

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $1.7M/yr

90.0% probability / year

Normal uneventful year: monitoring, PSAs, legal readiness and routine research/maintenance with no extraction or major incidents.

no_extraction regular_monitoring no_major_public_incident

🚨 Minor Incident $1.9M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$250K vs baseline

A public-facing incident (accidental high-profile connection, leak, or local legal pressure) requiring emergency PR, legal work, and targeted ad buys.

accidental_public_connection targeted_media_response legal_inquiry_or_subpoena

🚨 Extraction And Containment $3.0M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$1.3M vs baseline

Foundation conducts an extraction of SCP-1543-1 and establishes on-site secure containment, triggering large one-time expeditionary and fit-out costs plus elevated recurring containment expenses.

decision_to_extract field_expedition secure_cell_fitout

👥 Personnel 6.5 total

Role	Count	Notes
Senior Researcher	1	[#3] Senior Researcher salary (~$140k).
Research Scientist	1	[#3] Researcher salary (~$90k).
Audio/IT Technician	1	[#3, #12] Technician supporting recording systems and forensic tools (~$65k).
Clinical Psychologist (part-time)	0.5	[#3] 0.5 FTE clinical psychologist consultant (~$60k pro-rated).
Logistics/Field Coordinator (part-time)	0.5	[#3] 0.5 FTE logistics/field coordinator (~$40k pro-rated).
Monitoring / Telecom Operators	2.5	[#4] 24/7 monitoring and on-call coverage (2–3 FTE equivalent).

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges, enabling moderate confidence; however large geographic, telecom, and policy variability and conditional/extraction choices leave significant uncertainty.

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