SCP-5909 — SCP-5909 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-5909 Unknown ~ medium confidence

SCP-5909

Expected annual

$36.4M

One-time setup

$10.7B

Annual recurring

$30.4M

Personnel

One-time capital costs are dominated by large contingency and potential offensive/space-assets programs (billions). Annual operations are driven by monitoring, research, and sustained information-control operations (~tens of millions/year).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $10.7B

Offensive Space Assets Contingency $10.0B

[#26] Major contingency reserve for speculative offensive/defensive space assets or interstellar-capable programs (#26).

Facilities $517.0M

[#2, #3, #6, #14] Dedicated-space-telescope construction and launch (#2), small-aperture ground array site purchase/install (#3), amnestic manufacturing facility fit-out (#6), high-security storage build (#14).

Black Budget Contingency $100.0M

[#10] One-time reserved fund for major interventions, bribes, buyouts, emergency PR or clandestine acceleration (#10).

Liability Reserve One Time $20.0M

[#24] One-time reserve for major lawsuits/settlements or pre-funded legal defenses (#24).

Equipment $5.1M

[#18, #4, #17] Specialized instrumentation purchase/design (#18), initial data-storage/processing/archival hardware (#4), initial cybersecurity/hardening hardware (#17).

Covert Agreements Buyouts One Time $5.0M

[#11] Upfront buyouts/covert cooperative agreement payments to secure initial control of key institutions/data (#11).

Diplomatic Cover One Time $5.0M

[#22] Initial one-time diplomatic/influence payments to secure cooperation or silence (#22).

Witness Relocations Initial Budget $2.0M

[#7] Initial one-time relocation/identity/settlement costs for high-profile witnesses (first-year relocation costs) (#7).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $0

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🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $30.4M/yr

Long Term R And D $10.0M/yr

[#13] Seed/ongoing R&D into hypothetical containment/intervention technologies (#13).

Archival Secrecy Maintenance $3.0M/yr

[#25] Multi-decade secrecy maintenance: cover companies, payments, migrations, and institutional memory transfer (#25).

Staff Wages $2.2M/yr

[#1] Salaries and benefits for Astronomical Anomalies Department monitoring staff (estimated 18 FTE × ~$120k fully-burdened).

Observatory Time Access $2.0M/yr

[#2] Covert/guaranteed observing time on external facilities and operations budget for dedicated telescope operations if used (recurring access/ops) (#2).

Cyber Operations $1.2M/yr

[#9] SOC staffing, exploit/takedown budgets, monitoring and active content removal operations (#9).

Forensic Research $1.2M/yr

[#12] Forensic astrophysics research group costs, compute, PhD-level analysts (#12).

Evidence Confiscation Operations $1.0M/yr

[#5] Rapid-response black-bag team mobilizations, forensics, secure transport and travel baseline (#5).

Amnestic Production And Administration $1.0M/yr

[#6] Ongoing production, QA, medical administration, and monitoring costs for Class-A amnestics (#6).

Legal Media Coverup $1.0M/yr

[#8] Retainers, covert media influence, paid removals, litigation and PR campaigns to suppress or reframe discoveries (#8).

Covert Agreements Recurring $1.0M/yr

[#11] Ongoing hush payments, grants, staff cooperation stipends to institutions and archives (#11).

Diplomatic Cover Recurring $1.0M/yr

[#22] Ongoing covert diplomatic payments or influence operations with space agencies/governments (#22).

Liability Insurance $1.0M/yr

[#24] Annual insurance/retainer costs and plausible-deniability legal funding (#24).

Facilities Maintenance $850K/yr

[#3, #14] Annual maintenance/operations for ground-array sites and high-security storage environmental/security systems (#3, #14).

Witness Monitoring $800K/yr

[#7] Ongoing electronic surveillance, stipends, counseling, and monitoring for relocated/altered witnesses (#7).

Public Surveillance Monitoring $800K/yr

[#19] Automated monitoring of global media and social platforms and multilingual analysis tools (#19).

Tactical Logistics $750K/yr

[#15] Vehicles, charters, safehouses, extraction/team logistics baseline (#15).

Public Decoys $400K/yr

[#16] Funding for fabricated/decoy studies, fake journals, and curated distractor discoveries (#16).

Personnel Security Counterintelligence $400K/yr

[#20] Background checks, continuous monitoring, CI officers and insider-threat mitigation (#20).

Data Storage Operations $300K/yr

[#4] Ongoing storage growth, power, backups, and processing pipeline costs for archival data (#4).

Cybersecurity Maintenance $250K/yr

[#17] Ongoing internal cybersecurity, compartmentalization, vetting and secure collaboration costs (#17).

Training Drills $150K/yr

[#21] Regular training, tabletop exercises, and policy development for confiscation and leak scenarios (#21).

Medical Psych Support $150K/yr

[#23] Long-term care and counseling for staff subject to secrecy stress and amnestic administration oversight (#23).

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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Cover Story And Legal $0/yr

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⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $30.4M/yr

97.5% probability / year

Normal year with continuous monitoring, routine suppression, and no major public incident.

routine_monitoring covert_data_removals regular_research

🚨 Major Incident $80.4M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$50.0M vs baseline

Widespread public exposure or viral leak requiring large-scale amnestic campaigns, emergency buyouts, and intensified covert operations.

viral_social_media_exposure high-profile_publication multiple-observatory disclosures

🚨 Catastrophic Response $1.0B/yr

0.5% probability / year +$1.0B vs baseline

Decision to attempt large-scale physical intervention or full-scale offensive program (Operation SHELLFISH-level or development/deployment of major space assets).

policy_change_to_intervene accelerated_offensive_program O5/High-Command authorization

👥 Personnel 18 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	6	[#1] Senior/PhD-level analysts working on forensic astrophysics and modeling.
Telescope Operator	4	[#1] Operators running observatory assets and ground-array sites.
Data Analyst	4	[#1] Pipeline, archival, and monitoring analysts processing multi-wavelength data.
Mission Lead / Program Manager	2	[#1] Program leads coordinating monitoring, operations, and inter-agency contacts.
Administrative Staff	1	[#1] Admin/coordination and procurement support.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	1	[#1] Security liaison for confiscations and field operations.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed ranges for most line items, but many items (diplomatic payments, black budgets, and speculative offensive assets) are highly policy-dependent and range over multiple orders of magnitude, producing moderate overall confidence.

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