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SCP-5486 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-5486
Expected annual
$14.2M
One-time setup
$7.8M
Annual recurring
$13.8M
Personnel
41
One-time capital costs are driven by secure facilities, studio buildouts and a potential decommissioning capability (~$7.8M); recurring annual costs are dominated by specialized staff wages, covert/publicity budgets and cloud/monitoring infrastructure (~$13.83M/yr).
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $7.8M
Facilities $6.5M
[#14, #27, #31] Secure housing / controlled-interview facility buildout (#14), media production studio buildout (#27), and decommissioning/extreme isolation capability build costs (#31).
Equipment $600K
[#3, #15] Central compute/storage/ML infrastructure (capital) (#3) and facility security hardware setup (#15).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $300K
[#19] Forensic & measurement equipment and research instrumentation one-time purchases (#19).
Front Companies Setup $300K
[#12] One-time legal/administrative setup costs for front companies/media outlets per-program (estimated multiple entities aggregated).
Archive Initial Setup $100K
[#21] Initial archive duplication and legal/registration setup costs for cross-jurisdiction mirrors and physical archives (#21).
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $13.8M/yr
Staff Wages $4.8M/yr
[#5, #6, #7] Salaries for research staff (#5), data scientists/ML/IT staff (#6), and field operations / surveillance personnel (#7).
Research And Monitoring $2.0M/yr
[#1, #2, #4, #20, #21] Media-monitoring subscriptions (#1), direct social-platform data access/licensing (#2), cloud compute operating costs (#4), experimental memetic research program budget (#20), and archive hosting/duplication recurring costs (#21).
Controlled Publicity Budget $1.0M/yr
[#10] Program-level budget for staged publicity, influencer hires, ad buys and campaign-level operations to prolong notoriety (#10).
Covert Operations Fund $1.0M/yr
[#11] Unattributable/black-budget funds for covert influence, pseudofronts, source payments and unforeseen covert needs (#11).
Emergency Contingency Reserve $1.0M/yr
[#18] Annual reserve allocation for rapid-response to spikes in notoriety or international incidents (#18).
Logistics And Transport $700K/yr
[#24, #17] Travel, transport and logistics for field teams (#24) and crowd-control / protective deployment standby costs (#17).
Communications And Content Production $500K/yr
[#9] Communications/PR specialists, contracted content producers and in-house content production (contracts and campaign production) (#9).
Program Level Contingency $500K/yr
[#34] Program-level contingency for reputational/cover-up expenses, whistleblower mitigation and classified mitigation measures (#34).
Cover Story And Legal $450K/yr
[#8, #23] Legal team retainer/insurance and litigation expenditures beyond personnel salaries (#8), and cross-border legal actions and foreign counsel costs (#23).
Facilities Maintenance $400K/yr
[#13, #15, #28] Ongoing front company / outlet maintenance (#13), security hardware maintenance (#15), and energy/utilities for facilities and datacenters (#28).
Medical And Debriefing $300K/yr
[#16] Medical, psychiatric care and debriefing costs for possessed targets and related medicolegal evaluations (#16).
Paid Cultural Gatekeepers $300K/yr
[#22] Retainers/payments to journalists, publicists, historians and PR agencies to seed and maintain narratives (#22).
Pr Damage Control $300K/yr
[#29] Rapid PR damage-control, public-health coordination and liaison staffing costs for real-world fallout events (#29).
Staff Healthcare And Counseling $200K/yr
[#26] Healthcare, counseling and hazard premiums for staff exposed to memetic/noospheric hazards (#26).
Supplies And Consumables $100K/yr
[#33] Miscellaneous equipment, AV consumables, vehicles/drone upkeep and consumables (#33).
Staff Training $100K/yr
[#25] Staff training, memetic-safety programs and resilience training (#25).
Independent Oversight $100K/yr
[#32] Independent oversight, ethics board fees, audits and compliance staffing (#32).
Long Term Preservation $50K/yr
[#30] Legal/copyright registration and defense costs for preserving or removing content to manage notoriety lifecycle (#30).
Front Company Maintenance $0/yr
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Crowd Control And Protective Deployments $0/yr
[]
Archive Hosting $0/yr
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Miscellaneous Unallocated $0/yr
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⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $13.8M/yr
83.0% probability / year
Normal operational year with no major incidents; ongoing monitoring, research and publicity operations proceed as planned.
routine monitoring regular campaigns no major public crises
🚨 Minor Incident $14.8M/yr
15.0% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline
Localized notoriety spike or legal/PR incident requiring extra rapid-response, additional paid campaigns and legal expense.
viral surge around a subject targeted litigation or takedown battle short-term emergency deployments
🚨 Major Breach $23.8M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$10.0M vs baseline
High-profile international incident or containment failure requiring extensive international legal action, large-scale PR/cover-up, and emergency decommissioning/secure isolation actions.
wide international media exposure major legal precedent or multiple lawsuits requirement to build decommissioning/isolation capability
👥 Personnel 41 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 12 [#5] Senior and junior researchers studying memetic mechanisms and notoriety dynamics.
Data Scientist / ML Engineer 8 [#6] Personnel building detection algorithms, models, and maintaining data pipelines.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 15 [#7] Field operations and surveillance teams performing physical monitoring and protective deployments.
Engineer / Maintenance 2 [#15, #3] Facilities and IT maintenance staff for security systems and on-prem hardware.
Administrative Staff 3 []
Medical Officer 1 [#16] Medical/psychiatric oversight for possessed subjects and staff care.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed line-item ranges, allowing mid-confidence budgeting; however large ranges for several line items (covert funds, publicity budgets, decommissioning) and program scale choices create substantial uncertainty.
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