SCP-2783 — SCP-2783 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-2783 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-2783

Expected annual

$9.6M

One-time setup

$4.1M

Annual recurring

$9.6M

Personnel

Initial capital and setup costs are moderate (~$4.07M) driven by secure retrofit, research/lab buildout, and initial legal/PR reserves; recurring annual costs are dominated by staff wages, overseas quarantine/logistics, research/mapping, and legal/cover operations (~$7.99M/yr).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $4.1M

Initial Research And Lab Setup $1.3M

[#9, #11, #14, #22] Mapping/imaging servers and software, GPR and artifact conservation lab startup, secure storage/climate-controlled vault setup, AI/OCR development for inscription translation.

Facilities $1.1M

[#1] Secure retrofit of Laboratory 37 (construction, airlock, redundant locks, Faraday shielding, sensor arrays, antechamber).

Equipment $825K

[#7, #16, #24] Man-portable exploration drones (initial fleet), emergency response van/containment kit and tactical gear, initial sensor suite for monitoring.

Litigation Pr Initial Reserve $500K

[#23] Initial contingency/reserve for litigation, crisis PR, and initial hush/compensation arrangements.

Training Development $225K

[#6] Development of extradimensional exploration training curriculum, simulation rooms, and certification exams.

Security Vetting And Access Control $100K

[#2] High-assurance access control initial setup (clearance workflows, biometric gates, audit logging, records storage).

Manpowered Vehicles $20K

[#8] Low-tech man-powered vehicles and surveying gear initial purchase (bicycles, handheld GNSS, compasses, survey kits).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $9.6M/yr

Staff Wages $2.4M/yr

[#3, #4, #2, #10, #18] On-site security staff (6 guards + 1 supervisor), Level-5 research team (estimated 5 FTE), one sysadmin and HR support, medic/psychological coverage, mapping analysts (6 FTE annualized).

Logistics And Transport $1.8M/yr

[#12, #17] Joint ORIA/quarantine overseas operations and secure artifact transport/armored courier/air transport logistics.

Cover Story And Legal $1.1M/yr

[#13, #23] Diplomatic/legal/cover-up expenses plus annual litigation/PR reserve.

Research And Monitoring $1.1M/yr

[#9, #11, #18, #19, #22] Mapping/storage operations and backups, per-sample analytical lab costs, mapping processing and analyst support, funded research program, AI model compute/updates.

Personnel Overhead $730K/yr

[#21] Indirect overhead on salaried staff (benefits, pensions, facility utilities, insurance-equivalents) estimated at ~30% of direct payroll.

Research Program $650K/yr

[#19] Ongoing interdisciplinary research funding (archaeology, anthropology, memetics) and internal controlled projects.

Litigation Pr Annual Reserve $500K/yr

[#23] Annual maintained contingency for major exposures, legal defense, and covert remediation.

Artifact Transport $300K/yr

[#17] Annual budget for secure shipments, customs/staging, armored couriers and associated diplomatic logistics.

Artifact Storage Ops $138K/yr

[#14] Climate control, conservation staff time, consumables, and supplies for artifact storage and preservation.

Ethics And Audits $130K/yr

[#25] Periodic red-team reviews, ethics oversight, amnestic compliance audits, and contractor expert fees.

Supplies And Consumables $125K/yr

[#20] Consumables per expedition (food, batteries, spare PPE, spare parts).

Emergency Readiness $100K/yr

[#16] Readiness, resupply, and maintenance for rapid-response kits, portable amnestic supplies, and memetic filters.

Mapping Processing Ops $100K/yr

[#18] Compute, automated processing, and pipeline costs to process drone/GPR data and cemetery mapping.

Misc Contingency $100K/yr

[#26] Small equipment, unexpected minor repairs, travel, and incidentals.

Info Sec Ops $80K/yr

[#15] Air-gapped backups, audited transfers, secure courier services, and classified archive maintenance.

Ai Ops $55K/yr

[#22] Ongoing compute, model updates, and licensing for data-analysis AI/computer vision.

Medical And Psych Operational $50K/yr

[#10] Per-mission standby costs, medical supplies, and follow-up care for field medical/psychological support.

Security Vetting Ops $40K/yr

[#2] Ongoing operations and audits for high-assurance access control (annual vetting, biometrics maintenance, audit logging ops).

Drone Maintenance $30K/yr

[#7] Annual maintenance, spare parts, and consumables for exploration drones.

Manpowered Replacements $5K/yr

[#8] Yearly replacements and small repairs for man-powered vehicles and surveying gear.

Facilities Maintenance $0/yr

[]

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $9.6M/yr

90.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine operations, mapping, research, and restricted Level-5 access; no major incidents or escalations.

routine_explorations steady_mapping_and_analysis continued overseas liaison

🚨 Minor Incident $8.5M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$-1105000 vs baseline

Limited containment incident or localized exposure requiring additional amnestic treatments, emergency response deployment, and extra legal/PR action.

small_breach_or_exposure whistleblower_event localized field casualty

🚨 Major Quarantine Escalation $13.0M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$3.4M vs baseline

Overseas quarantine escalates to a militarized operation or large-scale artifact recovery campaign, greatly increasing security, logistics, and personnel costs.

militarized_quarantine large_scale_recovery_operations regional_political_escalation

👥 Personnel 21 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	7	6 guards + 1 supervisor, 24/7 perimeter and quick-reaction coverage. [#3]
Research Scientist	5	Level-5 research team for scheduled explorations and analysis (4-6 FTE assumed 5). [#4]
Data Analysts / GIS Analysts	6	Mapping and image-review analysts for graveyard curation and indexing. [#18]
Sysadmin	1	Full-time sysadmin for audit logging, databases, and infrastructure maintenance. [#2]
Administrative Staff (HR)	1	Part-time HR support for vetting and personnel records (rounded to 1 FTE for headcount). [#2]
Medical Officer / Psychologist	1	0.5-1 FTE medic + psychologist coverage for pre/post-mission checks and amnestic program (rounded to 1). [#10, #5]

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide extensive line-item ranges, staffing requirements, and operational context allowing a reasoned estimate; however many items are range-based (e.g., overseas quarantine scale, per-sample lab volume, and exact research staffing), so totals carry moderate uncertainty.

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