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SCP-2894 Neutralized ~ medium confidence
SCP-2894
Expected annual
$838K
One-time setup
$-1510000
Annual recurring
$816K
Personnel
7
Net one-time expenditures are dominated by contingency, field survey, PR/legal setup and secure server setup, with an estimated gross initial outlay of roughly $1.2M; however the project avoids large physical containment capital costs (estimated ~$2.75M), producing a net negative one-time figure. Recurring annual costs are driven by staff wages, legal retainer, hosting, monitoring, and overhead (approximately $815.5k/yr baseline).
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $-1510000
Contingency Reserve $350K
[#12] One-time covert/operations slush fund seed for whistleblower payments, hush money, emergency re-ops.
Hydrographic Survey $200K
[#1] Charter vessel, crew, multibeam sonar hire, fuel, permits, port fees, and on-site logistics for a 7–14 day survey.
Pr Campaign $150K
[#4] Contractor PR/disinformation campaign creation, content production, seeded articles and international outreach (initial campaign).
Legal One Time $150K
[#5] Initial legal services for takedowns, FOIA/records work, coordination with hydrographic offices and libraries (one-time bill).
Equipment $138K
[#7, #11] Secure server/hardening and field/encrypted communications hardware (server hardware, encryption devices, sat phones).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $85K
[#3, #19] Scientific/academic cover funding to produce supporting papers and the one-time research/neutralization writeup.
Travel Initial Deployment $35K
[#10] Airfare, hotels, per diems, visas for initial investigator/PR/legal deployments to New Caledonia/Paris/Auckland.
Research Writeup $35K
[#19] One-time internal research/archival writeup to document neutralization decision.
Satellite Imagery Initial $30K
[#2] Purchase of high-resolution commercial scenes and archive pulls; possible commissioning of targeted tasking (initial buy).
Liaison One Time $30K
[#8] Initial liaison/coordination fees or reimbursements to national hydrographic offices and maritime authorities.
Archival Corrections $25K
[#9] Physical archive/chart/atlas corrections, travel/fees to access and alter multiple archives.
Secure Comms One Time $12K
[#11] Purchase of satellite phones and encrypted devices for field teams and ops staff (device purchase).
Facilities $0
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Opportunity Cost Avoidance $-2750000
[#20] Estimated avoided capital cost for full physical containment (island/base/vessel infrastructure) that is not required due to neutralization.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $816K/yr
Staff Wages $410K/yr
[#6, #7, #16] Salaries for monitoring/content operators, site/sysadmin, and 1–2 full-time project management/lead researchers coordinating operations.
Cover Story And Legal $100K/yr
[#5] Annual legal retainer and ongoing legal work for takedowns, international requests, and record corrections.
Administrative Overhead $70K/yr
[#17] Pro-rated finance/HR/audit overhead allocated to this program (approx. 15–25% of salaries/contractors).
Database Hosting And Maintenance $60K/yr
[#7] Hosting, maintenance, encrypted backups, audit logging and off-site archival costs (hosting portion).
Contingency Annual $50K/yr
[#12] Annual replenishment of covert/operations fund for emergent small-scale needs.
Satellite Imagery Subscription $20K/yr
[#2] Ongoing archive access, subscriptions and occasional new tasking for imagery monitoring.
Translation Localization $20K/yr
[#15] Multilingual translation/localization and regional monitoring for French and Pacific languages.
Research Periodic Review $20K/yr
[#19] Periodic review staff time and archival maintenance to justify and sustain neutralization classification.
Intelligence Subscriptions $18K/yr
[#14] News feeds, social analytics, geospatial alerting services to detect renewed interest.
Travel Periodic $12K/yr
[#10] Periodic follow-up travel and logistics for investigators, PR/legal oversight.
Insurance $12K/yr
[#13] Vessel and personnel insurance for any chartered field operations.
Liaison Ongoing $10K/yr
[#8] Ongoing liaison/reimbursement budget for partner maritime/hydrographic authorities.
Small Scale Public Corrections $10K/yr
[#18] Ongoing non-legal edits/outreach to map providers, Wikipedia and open-source map communities (staff time).
Secure Comms Airtime $3K/yr
[#11] Airtime and subscription costs for satellite communications and encrypted comms.
Facilities Maintenance $0/yr
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Supplies And Consumables $0/yr
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Research And Monitoring $0/yr
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Logistics And Transport $0/yr
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⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $816K/yr
93.5% probability / year
Normal, uneventful year with routine monitoring, subscriptions, staff wages, and periodic reviews; no major public incidents.
routine_monitoring legal_retainer_active periodic_review
🚨 Minor Incident $1.1M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$250K vs baseline
Localized public interest spike or a small leak requiring a rapid-response PR refresh, limited re-survey or targeted imagery tasking and legal actions.
localized_media_spike small_leak need_for_additional_imagery
🚨 Political Exposure $1.3M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Formal international inquiries or heightened government scrutiny requiring reimbursing agencies, expanded liaison, and expensive legal/PR responses.
international_inquiry formal_chart_disputes government_litigation
🚨 Major Breach $1.8M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline
Major public exposure or contested litigation that forces extended field operations, multiple surveys, large-scale PR and legal defense, and large contingency spending.
major_media_exposé class-action_or_state_litigation extended_field_re-ops
👥 Personnel 7 total
Role Count Notes
Project Manager / Lead Researcher 2 [#16] 1–2 FTE coordinating PR, legal, liaison and research activities (budgeted in staff wages).
Sysadmin / IT Security 1 [#7] Full-time admin to manage secure hosting, backups and audit logging (salary included in staff wages).
Monitoring / Content Moderation Operators 3 [#6] 2–4 operators to monitor social media, wikis and map services; aggregated in staff wages.
Administrative Staff 1 [#17] Shared finance/HR support allocated to the project (overhead allocation).
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide explicit ranges and line-item guidance for most costs, enabling midpoint estimates; uncertainty remains around incident frequencies, multiplier effects (number of archives/locations) and the valuation of avoided containment costs, so confidence is medium.
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