SCP-1823 — SCP-1823 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-1823 Keter ~ medium confidence

SCP-1823

Expected annual

$80.5M

One-time setup

$326.6M

Annual recurring

$78.5M

Personnel

186

Initial capital to establish full independent maritime surveillance and response capability is approximately $327M one-time, driven by satellite acquisition, ships, aircraft and large contingency reserves. Annual operations for a fully independent program are roughly $78.5M/yr, driven by staff wages, vessel operations, salvage/logistics and fuel/energy.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $326.6M

Equipment $201.5M

[#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #18, #28] One-time purchase of satellite & ground station, research vessel(s), interceptor boats, helicopters, unmanned AUV/ROV and surface drones, buoy network hardware, initial spare parts inventory, and IT/hardened comms hardware.

Contingency Reserve $50.0M

[#27] Large-scale catastrophe / emergency reserve fund for rapid global response and cover-up operations.

Reserve Fleet Seed $25.0M

[#16] Seed reserve fund to replace vessels/aircraft lost to SCP-1823 or attrition (contingency fleet replacement seed).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $15.0M

[#15] Research lab buildout, supercomputing access and initial experimental apparatus for hydrodynamics/modelling and controlled sea trials (initial tranche).

Insurance Reserve $15.0M

[#22] One-time internal insurance/indemnity reserve to absorb accidental losses and quiet settlements.

Facilities $10.0M

[#1, #29] Secure coastal operations HQ leasehold improvements, hardened comms rooms, medical/interrogation rooms, and initial field-station lease/setup costs.

Medical Setup And Production $8.0M

[#12] Medical unit setup and secure Class-B amnestic production/storage capabilities (initial capital and secure infrastructure).

False Weather Infra Setup $1.5M

[#10] Initial secure servers, spoofing/broadcast capability and setup of false-weather dissemination infrastructure.

Boarding Training Setup $600K

[#11] Setup costs for maritime special-ops boarding team training program, facilities and initial gear procurement.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $78.5M/yr

Staff Wages $23.0M/yr

[#1, #8, #11, #12, #3] Salaries for HQ operations, satellite/AIS analysts and data scientists, boarding teams (50–120 personnel), medical staff, and research/ship crews.

Logistics And Transport $10.5M/yr

[#3, #13, #18, #16] Salvage and recovery contingency, docking/repair yard fees, spare-parts replenishment and ship maintenance (annual contingency for salvage operations and transport logistics).

Research And Monitoring $7.8M/yr

[#8, #15, #7, #28] Core research program funding, compute/storage for imagery and ML pipelines, buoy network maintenance and ground-station operations.

Fuel And Energy $6.0M/yr

[#17] Fuel for continuous ship patrols, aircraft ops and backup generator fuel at HQ and field stations.

Depreciation And Repair Fund $5.0M/yr

[#16] Annual depreciation, repair and reserved replacement provisioning for owned vessels/aircraft/equipment.

Aircraft Ops $3.5M/yr

[#5] Rotary-wing flight operations, pilots, maintenance and hourly flight costs for SAR/boarding helicopters.

Facilities Maintenance $3.0M/yr

[#1, #29] Ongoing maintenance, utilities, backup power fuel and upkeep for HQ and leased field stations.

Intelligence And Clandestine Ops $3.0M/yr

[#19] Intelligence officers, clandestine logistics staffing and covert operations to manage leaks and liaise with foreign services.

Cover Story And Legal $2.8M/yr

[#9, #10, #20] Ongoing legal/cover-up operations, falsified weather dissemination ops, PR/media management and liaison with national navies for rerouting.

Insurance And Indemnity Provisioning $2.5M/yr

[#22] Annual provisioning for insurance/indemnity funds to cover claims and quiet settlements.

Satellite Tasking Contract $2.0M/yr

[#2] Recurring commercial satellite tasking contract alternative to owning a dedicated satellite (included as an operational alternative/cost).

Internal Security And Counterintelligence $1.5M/yr

[#24] Red-team leak prevention, background checks, insider monitoring and counterintelligence staff/systems.

Small Craft Ops $1.2M/yr

[#4] Fuel, maintenance and crew costs for fast-interceptor patrol boats and small craft.

It Ops $1.2M/yr

[#28] Ongoing IT operations, cybersecurity, classified communications and secure backups.

Compensation Cover Payments $1.0M/yr

[#14] Ongoing compensation and hush-money payments to affected civilian communities and carriers.

Environmental Mitigation $1.0M/yr

[#23] Environmental remediation, fines mitigation and legal compliance contracting.

Public Emergency Contingency $1.0M/yr

[#30] Annual contingency for public emergency simulations and reimbursements in the event of a public incident.

Leases And Field Station Rent $1.0M/yr

[#29] Recurring lease/rental fees for long-term field stations and port access agreements.

Unmanned Ops $600K/yr

[#6] Maintenance, recovery and operations for AUV/ROV fleets and surface drones.

Supplies And Consumables $400K/yr

[#12] Consumables including per-administration amnestic costs, medical consumables and general low-level supplies.

Forensic Processing $300K/yr

[#21] Forensic pathology, biohazard processing and secure body disposal contingency.

Training Simulations $200K/yr

[#25] Regular drills, tabletop exercises and simulation costs.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $78.5M/yr

69.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine monitoring, occasional small incidents and no major salvage or reserve drawdowns.

routine_surveillance small_incidents_only

🚨 Minor Incident $80.5M/yr

25.0% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline

Single-ship engagement or shallow salvage requiring emergency response, limited salvage and amnestic administrations.

shallow_vessel_loss emergency_salvage

🚨 Major Incident $93.5M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$15.0M vs baseline

Deep-water vessel loss or high-casualty event requiring large salvage/recovery, major cover-up and replacement provisioning.

deep_salvage large_cover-up_operations

🚨 Catastrophic Breach $158.5M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$80.0M vs baseline

Multi-vessel disaster or highly visible public incident requiring catastrophic reserve usage and global response.

multi-vessel_disaster public_exposure

👥 Personnel 186 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	80	Boarding teams and maritime special-ops personnel; salaries/training included in staff_wages [#11].
Research Scientist / Analyst	16	Satellite/AIS imagery analysts and modelling staff included in staff_wages [#8, #15].
Research Vessel Crew	60	Crew for owned research/patrol vessels; salaries and shipboard staff included in staff_wages [#3].
Medical Officer	15	Medical staff for HQ and ships, amnestic administration and psychiatric aftercare included in staff_wages [#12].
Administrative Staff / HQ	15	Operations, comms, legal liaisons and administrative personnel supporting 24/7 monitoring and coordination included in staff_wages [#1, #9].

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges but large uncertainties remain (incident frequency, buy vs contract choices, and scale of owned assets). Wide cost ranges for satellites, fleet replacement and contingency reserves reduce point-estimate confidence.

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