SCP-5173 — SCP-5173 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-5173 Keter ? low confidence

SCP-5173

Expected annual

$203.1M

One-time setup

$12.8B

Annual recurring

$193.5M

Personnel

126

One-time capital costs for space assets, neutralisation R&D and potential directed-energy infrastructure dominate (multi‑billion USD). Annual recurring costs are dominated by insurance, mission operations, monitoring and staffing (~$150M/yr).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $12.8B

Directed Energy Infrastructure $5.0B

[#10] Contingency buildout for ground/space-based high-power beam/laser infrastructure (large-scale option; optional but budgeted at low-end of feasibility).

Contingency Reserve $2.1B

[#17] Program contingency (20% of capital items above) for cost overruns, delays, failures and rapid re-tasking.

Neutralisation Launches $2.0B

[#9] Heavy-lift launches (multiple) planned for rapid intervention / intercept capability.

Neutralisation R And D $1.5B

[#7] Emergency propulsion and payload R&D (nuclear-thermal, high-thrust prototypes, teststands, prototypes).

Equipment $900.0M

[#1] OrbSat PERIHELION design, spacecraft bus, payload, radiation hardening, RTG/long-life power and launch integration.

Warhead Procurement $500.0M

[#8] Procurement/secure handling infrastructure for high-yield payloads or black-budget alternatives (if pursued).

Deep Space Launch Contingency $300.0M

[#3] One-time procurement of 1–3 spare/emergency probes, upper stages and adapters to enable rapid chase/intercept capability.

Monitoring Network $150.0M

[#11] Initial redundant smallsat constellation + ground telescopes for continuous surveillance and replacements.

Radio Interception Suite $120.0M

[#4] Build/augment secure, hardened radio listening arrays / dish expansion and secure DSN access for deep-space signal collection.

Facilities $75.0M

[#12] Secure research containment facility buildout for classified analysis, vault/quarantine, EMP shielding and forensic suites.

Liaison And Black Ops Emergency $50.0M

[#15] One-time emergency hush funds and covert diplomatic operations to secure/neutralise civilian assets when needed.

Hazardous Materials Handling $20.0M

[#19] One-time hazardous waste handling infrastructure and remediation planning for radioactive materials if used.

Hpc Cluster $10.0M

[#5] High-performance compute nodes, storage and modelling software licences for trajectory/GR simulations.

Legal Emergency Contingency $10.0M

[#16] One-time contingency for emergency litigation / legal cover events.

Decommissioning And Data Destruction $5.0M

[#22] Secure disposal / data destruction and site remediation costs per major asset retirement.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $0

[]

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $193.5M/yr

Insurance And Writeoffs $50.0M/yr

[#18] Annual self-insurance / reserve for failed or expended launches and asset loss (black-budget replacement fund).

Research And Monitoring $26.0M/yr

[#5, #11, #12] HPC power/maintenance, monitoring network ops, and secure facility operational research budgets.

Supplies And Consumables $20.0M/yr

[#3] Readiness maintenance for contingency probes / booster inventory; spare parts and storage readiness upkeep.

Deep Space Launch Contingency $20.0M/yr

[#3] Annual maintenance of readiness for spare probes and fast-transfer upper stages.

Staff Wages $19.0M/yr

[#6, #13] Salaries for research scientists, MTF personnel, flight-ops engineers, HPC operators, admin and executive staff (fully-loaded).

Facilities Maintenance $12.0M/yr

[#2] Mission operations infrastructure & ground-station/DSN access costs (ongoing ops, uplinks, telemetry services).

Cover Story And Legal $10.0M/yr

[#14] Annual reserve for misinformation campaigns, media-control, legal staffing and digital-forensics; incidents budgeted separately in scenarios.

Mission Operations $5.0M/yr

[#2] Ongoing DSN/ground-station time, uplinks, contingency ops beyond base facilities maintenance (split from staff wages).

Radio Interception Operations $5.0M/yr

[#4] Staffed SIGINT operations, spectrum analysis and decryption teams for deep-space radio monitoring.

Secure Research Containment Facility $5.0M/yr

[#12] Security, utilities and classified-ops costs for lab/vault/quarantine facility.

Liaison And Black Ops Ops $5.0M/yr

[#15] Ongoing covert liaison, influence operations and access-maintenance with civilian agencies.

Logistics And Transport $3.0M/yr

[#13] Recurring deployment logistics and per-deployment travel / staging averaged over year (minor deployments baseline).

Mtf Deployments $3.0M/yr

[#13] Average per-year cost for 1–3 global deployments (travel, local ops, equipment) averaged into baseline.

Legal And Policy $3.0M/yr

[#16] Ongoing legal, policy and crisis-management staffing and retainer costs.

Hpc Operations $2.0M/yr

[#5] Power, maintenance and support for HPC/cluster usage.

Hazardous Materials Monitoring $2.0M/yr

[#19] Ongoing environmental monitoring and waste storage costs for radioactive materials if applicable.

Public Fallout Reserve $2.0M/yr

[#21] Annual reserve for rapid public-safety messaging, coordination with emergency services, and small-scale fallout mitigation.

Long Term Watch $1.5M/yr

[#20] Minimal ongoing watch team and periodic checks if SCP neutralised but monitored.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $193.5M/yr

93.0% probability / year

Uneventful year with regular monitoring, readiness maintenance, personnel costs and routine ops only.

steady_monitoring no_emergence_event

🚨 Minor Incident $179.5M/yr

4.0% probability / year +$-14000000 vs baseline

Small exposure or anomalous signal requiring one MTF deployment and targeted cover-up/legal response.

localized_exposure short_deployment targeted_coverup

🚨 Major Neutralisation $1.2B/yr

1.0% probability / year +$961.0M vs baseline

Amida-class emergence declaration and active neutralisation attempt using additional launches and emergency operations.

emergence_event Amida-class_declaration rapid_neutralisation_launches

🚨 Political Exposure $219.5M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$26.0M vs baseline

Significant public or international exposure requiring large-scale coverup, litigation and public mitigation.

major_leak media_exposure international_dispute

👥 Personnel 126 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	20	Scientists, mission analysts and gravitation specialists supporting modelling and analysis. [#6]
Security Officer / MTF Agent	80	Standing MTF Gamma-5 unit personnel for cover, field ops and deployments. [#13]
Flight Ops / Mission Control Engineer	12	Engineers for spacecraft operations, comms and telemetry. Portions of mission ops staffing. [#2]
Research Engineer / HPC Operator	8	HPC and modelling operators supporting simulations and trajectory planning. [#5]
Administrative Staff	4	Program admin, procurement and logistics support. [#14, #15]
Site Director / Executive Staff	2	Program leadership and executive coordination for interagency/black-ops. [#16, #15]

📋 Confidence Notes

Costs are built from broad, high-variance ranges in the analyst notes and depend on strategic choices (whether to build directed-energy, procure warheads, number of launches). Large technical, political and black‑budget uncertainties reduce confidence.

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