← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-4718 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-4718
Expected annual
$88.8M
One-time setup
$231.2M
Annual recurring
$86.5M
Personnel
77
Initial capital outlay for dedicated assets and shore-side facilities is roughly $231.2M, driven primarily by purchase of a deep-submersible and support vessels; recurring annual operations and cover costs are ~ $86.45M/yr, driven by rig leasing, personnel, vessel/sub operations, PR/legal, and R&D/monitoring.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $231.2M
Deep Submersible Purchase $100.0M
[#1] Purchase/build of certified deep-rated manned submersible (bathyscaphe/DSV) to allow repeated 3.5 km human access.
Support Vessel Purchase $80.0M
[#3] Purchase/conversion of DP-capable mothership(s) with ROV launch capability, cranes/winches and support infrastructure.
Rov Purchase Tooling $10.0M
[#2] Purchase of work-class deep-rated ROV fleet (4–6 km) with manipulators, cameras, cutting tools and sample baskets.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $9.5M
[#10, #11, #13] Secure quarantine/materials/neuro lab buildout and instruments (SEM/EDS/XRD/mass spec), initial secure IT and compute infrastructure, purchase of fMRI unit.
Drilling Rig Setup One Time $5.0M
[#4] Initial broker/legal/setup costs to establish drilling-rig cover operation and contracting.
Submarine Refit Reserve $5.0M
[#5] Capital reserve for periodic refits and capital maintenance of patrol submarine (occasional one-time refit costs).
Emergency Salvage Reserve $5.0M
[#19] One-time contingency/reserve fund to retain salvage capacity or pre-contract major salvage services.
Classification Breach Reserve $5.0M
[#24] One-time reserve fund for major whistleblower payouts, settlements or emergency legal contingency.
Security Boats And Initial Training $3.3M
[#17] Purchase of patrol boats (multiple) and initial boarding-team training/equipment.
Heavy Lift Purchase $2.0M
[#8] Purchase of large-capacity winches, lifting frames, cutting tools and associated heavy-lift gear for seabed sample recovery.
Facilities $1.8M
[#9, #20] Shore-side hyperbaric/decompression buildout and containment vault installs; includes climate control, EM shielding install.
Robotic End Effectors $1.5M
[#7] Custom robotic humanoid manipulators, bioskin end-effectors and haptics hardware to allow non-human skin-contact testing.
Legal Setup One Time $1.0M
[#15] Initial maritime law, permit procurement, legal cover and setup for long-term exclusion-zone operations.
Rnd Initial $1.0M
[#23] Initial R&D program seed funding for medical/technical countermeasures and interface protocols.
Monitoring Array Deploy $500K
[#18] Deployment and hardware costs for seabed sensors, hydrophones, moorings and relay nodes.
Training Certification Initial $300K
[#22] Initial certification and training programs for deep-sea ops, ROV piloting and hazardous handling.
Communications Hardware $300K
[#14] Purchase of satellite terminals, encrypted radios, acoustic modems and secure comms hardware.
Equipment $0
[]
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $86.5M/yr
Drilling Rig Lease $50.0M/yr
[#4] Continuous lease/charter of a drilling rig or contractor to provide legal cover and exclusion-zone plausibility (day-rates dominate costs if cover runs continuously).
Logistics And Transport $12.0M/yr
[#1, #3, #5, #8] Operational costs for vessels/submarine (crewing, fuel, dry-docking), mothership operations and routine transport/logistics associated with offshore campaigns.
Staff Wages $8.0M/yr
[#6] Salaried payroll for scientific, technical, security, medical and administrative staff (20–100 staff; includes hazard pay).
Research And Monitoring $5.5M/yr
[#2, #7, #8, #10, #11, #13, #18, #23] Ongoing ROV spares/upgrades, robotic development maintenance, per-campaign sample recovery costs, lab consumables & analyses, secure IT maintenance, fMRI service contracts, monitoring-array servicing, and ongoing R&D.
Cover Story And Legal $5.5M/yr
[#4, #15, #16, #21, #24] Ongoing legal retainer, maritime permitting, lobbying, PR/disinformation program and environmental/cleanup insurance (excludes drilling rig lease day-rates).
Supplies And Consumables $2.5M/yr
[#10, #25] Lab consumables, cryogens, medical supplies, oxygen, replacement parts and general expendables for offshore & lab operations.
On Site Security Ops $1.0M/yr
[#17] Crewing and operations for patrol boats, boarding teams and maritime security enforcement of the 2 km exclusion zone.
Facilities Maintenance $600K/yr
[#9, #20] Routine maintenance, utilities and monitoring for hyperbaric facilities and containment vaults.
Emergency Salvage Retainer $500K/yr
[#19] Annual retainer for salvage/rescue assets and rapid-response contracting capacity.
Psychological Care Program $500K/yr
[#12] Ongoing psychiatric/neurorehabilitation, compensation and inpatient/outpatient care budget for affected volunteers and subjects.
Training Refresher $150K/yr
[#22] Annual refresher courses and re-certification for deep-sea and hazardous operations personnel.
Communications Bandwidth $150K/yr
[#14] Satellite bandwidth, leased comms links and acoustic comms services for offshore operations.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $86.5M/yr
93.0% probability / year
Foundation purchases/operates dedicated assets (deep sub, mothership, patrol boats) and maintains continuous drilling-rig cover; normal year without major incidents.
normal operations routine campaigns continuous cover active
🚨 Charter Based Ops $120.0M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$33.5M vs baseline
Foundation opts to avoid large capital purchases and instead charters deep-submersibles, ROVs and support vessels and relies on short campaigns and external contractors.
no asset purchases heavy short-term charters increased day-rates and contract fees
🚨 Major Breach $121.5M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$35.0M vs baseline
Major incident (sub crash, public exposure, large salvage) requiring heavy salvage, legal settlements, remediation and intensive PR/cover operations.
submersible accident public exposure / whistleblower large-scale salvage or contamination
👥 Personnel 77 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 15 Principal investigators and materials/neuro researchers; avg comp ~ $140k/yr. [#6]
Submarine Crew / Technical 25 DSV crew, engineers and marine technicians required to operate Ymir/deep-submersible; avg comp ~ $90k/yr. [#6]
ROV Pilots / Marine Engineers 8 ROV operators and ROV maintenance engineers; avg comp ~ $100k/yr. [#6]
Security Officer / MTF Agent 10 Maritime boarding teams and armed security for exclusion zone enforcement; avg comp ~ $85k/yr. [#6, #17]
Medical Officer 3 Medical and hyperbaric staff for decompression and emergent care; avg comp ~ $160k/yr. [#9, #6]
Lab Technician 8 Materials lab and neuro lab technicians supporting analyses and sample prep; avg comp ~ $75k/yr. [#10, #13]
IT / Analysts 4 Forensic computing, secure storage, and data analysis staff managing SCP-4718-A exposures; avg comp ~ $120k/yr. [#11]
Administrative Staff 4 Logistics, contracting, legal liaisons and administrative support for offshore cover ops; avg comp ~ $80k/yr. [#15, #4]
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed cost ranges for most line items but wide variability in day-rates (rigs/charters), salvage event magnitudes and choice of capital purchase vs charter. Mid-level confidence due to large ranges and operational choice sensitivity.
← SCP-4717 ↑ All SCPs SCP-4719 →