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SCP-2499 Ticonderoga ~ medium confidence
SCP-2499
Expected annual
$61.0M
One-time setup
$556.5M
Annual recurring
$59.9M
Personnel
25
Initial containment and monitoring program requires a large up-front investment (dominated by a recommended spaceborne terahertz satellite and a catastrophic contingency fund) and substantial recurring costs driven by contracted observatory time, staffing, and operations. One-time costs are dominated by satellite procurement/launch, airborne platforms and contingency reserves; annual costs are dominated by contracted observation time, staffing, and operations.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $556.5M
Catastrophic Contingency Fund $300.0M
[#18] Standby catastrophic fund for large-scale amnestic/memetic operations if public confirmation occurs.
Space Satellite Mission $150.0M
[#6] Small dedicated sub-mm/terahertz science satellite mission (development, payload, launch).
Airborne Platforms Initial $42.5M
[#21] Retrofit/modify airborne high-altitude platforms or UAVs with sub-mm receivers (platform + receiver).
High Altitude Station Owned $25.0M
[#5] Owned high-altitude sub-mm station dish + cryogenic receiver and site construction (midpoint estimate).
Dedicated Telescopes Own $12.0M
[#4] Purchase and installation of 8 robotic 0.5–1.0 m telescope sites (mounts, enclosures, automation).
Observatory Infiltration Initial $9.0M
[#1] Initial placement/bribes/inducements to gain long-term access/control of ~30 major observatory sites.
Data Interception Development $4.0M
[#3] Development & deployment of secure network appliances, backdoors, sanitization pipelines and hardened servers (one-time tooling).
Hpc Initial Hardware $3.0M
[#7] Initial secure HPC cluster, GPU nodes, multipetabyte storage and encrypted backup hardware.
Cyber Tooling Initial $3.0M
[#11] Initial offensive/defensive cyber tooling, campaigns and infrastructure build.
Contingency Planning Study $3.0M
[#17] One-off detailed contingency studies, simulations and external specialist contracts.
Secure Ops Center Fitout $2.0M
[#9] Secure operations center fit-out: EMP-hardened comms, secure entrances, generators and life-safety systems.
Legal Pr Shell Setup $1.2M
[#13] Initial establishment of shell foundations, legal retainer and PR infrastructure.
Research Seed Funding $750K
[#22] Seed funding for internal research programs and controlled publication/planting operations.
Field Logistics Setup $350K
[#16] Initial vehicles, safehouse setup and secure shipping equipment.
Amnestic Program Setup $250K
[#12] Setup & training for limited Class-M amnestic program (training, logistics).
Backup Redundancy Initial $225K
[#20] Initial offsite mirrored archives, air-gapped storage and physical record redundancies.
Amateur Monitoring Tooling $200K
[#15] Monitoring tooling and initial systems to surveil amateur/citizen-science channels.
Facilities $0
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Equipment $0
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Initial Research And Lab Setup $0
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🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $59.9M/yr
Contracted Observation Time $25.0M/yr
[#14] Purchasing/guaranteeing multi-year observation blocks on major facilities if infiltration is insufficient.
Cover Story And Legal $6.5M/yr
[#13] Recurring budget for grants, PR, litigation, and cover-story maintenance (shell organizations, retainer).
Space Satellite Ops $5.0M/yr
[#6] Mission operations for spaceborne terahertz instrument or small sub-mm satellite.
Staff Wages $4.8M/yr
[#8] Salaries, benefits and classified pay differentials for ~20–30 specialized staff (astrophysicists, engineers, ops).
Airborne Ops Recurring $3.5M/yr
[#21] Operational sorties, maintenance and support for airborne high-altitude monitoring platforms.
Observatory Infiltration Ongoing $3.0M/yr
[#2] Recurring stipends, hush payments and turnover costs to maintain insider cooperation at ~30 sites.
High Altitude Station Ops $2.2M/yr
[#5] Cryogenics, power and technician support for owned high-altitude sub-mm station.
Research Program Recurring $2.0M/yr
[#22] Recurring funding for internal research, modelling campaigns and controlled publication efforts.
Supplies And Consumables $1.2M/yr
[#10] Cryogenic consumables, spare mixers, LO components, travel/maintenance to remote sites.
Dedicated Telescopes Ops $1.2M/yr
[#4] Operations for 8 robotic telescope sites: staffing, scheduling, bandwidth.
Cyber Ops Ongoing $1.0M/yr
[#11] Ongoing offensive & defensive cyber operations, takedowns and persistent access maintenance.
Data Interception Maintenance $750K/yr
[#3] Ongoing maintenance, ops and updates for interception/sanitization infrastructure.
Amnestic Program Recurring $600K/yr
[#12] Per-treatment costs and annual volume for limited Class-M amnestic administrations (~200 treatments/yr).
Amateur Monitoring Recurring $600K/yr
[#15] Recurring engagement/moderation, false-grant programs and liaison to redirect amateur networks.
Hpc Recurring $550K/yr
[#7] Power, admin, and cloud overflow for secure HPC and archive systems.
Facilities Maintenance $500K/yr
[#9] Utilities, maintenance and site operations for secure ops center and facility infrastructure.
Field Logistics Recurring $500K/yr
[#16] Travel to remote observatories, secure transport, emergency extractions and safehouse maintenance.
Contingency Planning Recurring $500K/yr
[#17] Advisory updates, simulation refreshes and tabletop exercises.
Red Team Audits $400K/yr
[#19] Regular OPSEC audits, penetration testing and counterintelligence activities.
Backup Redundancy Recurring $40K/yr
[#20] Rotation and maintenance costs for offsite mirrored archives and cold storage media.
Research And Monitoring $0/yr
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Logistics And Transport $0/yr
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⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $59.9M/yr
93.9% probability / year
Normal, uneventful year with routine operations and no major incidents.
routine_operations no_major_leaks
🚨 Minor Incident $61.9M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline
Localized detection or leak (amateur or small institutional) requiring targeted takedowns, extra travel and limited amnestic use.
amateur_detection small_data_leak
🚨 Major Breach $109.9M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$50.0M vs baseline
Significant public/external discovery or major observatory compromise requiring large-scale legal/PR response, extended amnestic deployments and replacement of records.
major_observatory_compromise widespread_media_coverage
🚨 Catastrophic Public Exposure $559.9M/yr
0.1% probability / year +$500.0M vs baseline
Widespread independent confirmation and global media storm requiring activation of catastrophic contingency fund and major coordinated containment operations.
global_media_confirmation coordinated_amateur_corroboration
👥 Personnel 25 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 8 [#8] Optical, radio and astrometry specialists focused on SCP-2499.
Software / Data Scientist 4 [#7,#3,#22] Data pipelines, analysis, archive maintenance and internal research modelling.
Engineer / Maintenance 4 [#4,#5,#21] Telescope ops, site technicians and airborne/platform maintenance.
Cryogenic Engineer 1 [#5,#10] Specialist support for cryogenic receivers and cryocooler maintenance.
Radio Engineer 1 [#5,#6] Radio/sub-mm instrumentation and receiver specialists.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 2 [#16,#19] Physical security, extractions and rapid response.
Administrative Staff 2 [#13,#15] Grants, cover operations, liaison and PR coordination.
Site Director / Executive Staff 1 [#9,#17] Program management and executive oversight.
Medical Officer 1 [#12] Medical oversight for amnestic administrations and post-treatment monitoring.
Operations Technician 1 [#4,#7] Day-to-day ops support for telescopes, HPC and telemetry.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges; line-item cost ranges and the uncertain need for spaceborne/airborne assets and catastrophic operations produce moderate uncertainty in totals.
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