← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-5953 Keter ~ medium confidence
SCP-5953
Expected annual
$6.0M
One-time setup
$13.8M
Annual recurring
$5.9M
Personnel
21
First-year capital and setup costs are dominated by vessels, moored infrastructure, and lab/quarantine buildouts (~$13.8M one-time). Ongoing annual costs are driven by specialized staff wages, vessel operations/maintenance, monitoring, and cover/legal budgets (~$5.9M/yr baseline).
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $13.8M
Facilities $5.6M
[#1, #5, #6] Purchase/refit of an offshore mothership (used/refit assumed), construction/refit and deployment of a moored containment barge, and onshore emergency quarantine pool/tank buildout.
Contingency Reserve Establish $3.0M
[#30] Establishment of a contingency reserve/liability fund for large unexpected expenditures (mass retrievals, litigation, asset replacement).
Equipment $2.3M
[#3, #8, #9, #12, #14, #22, #32] Two patrol boats, acoustic/satellite tags for ~30 animals, hydrophone/hydrodetection buoys deployment, ROV/AUV units, capture/restraint gear, initial cyber/EMC detection hardware, and neutralization/extraordinary-response kit initial procurement.
Decommissioning Relocation $1.8M
[#31] One-time estimate for charter vessels, transport tanks, specialized veterinary support and legal clearances to remove or relocate instances.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $1.0M
[#20] Wet lab buildout and research instrumentation (sequencing, histology, EM/EEG) for studying augmentations.
Training Initial $130K
[#27] Initial diver/handler training, capture/release simulations, emergency medical drills, and maritime interdiction exercises.
Medical And Veterinary Initial Stock $55K
[#15] Initial stocks of sedatives, antibiotics, IV fluids, anesthesia equipment sized for dolphins, and emergency meds.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $5.9M/yr
Staff Wages $2.5M/yr
[#16, #17, #18, #21] Salaries for veterinary staff (marine vets and techs), marine biologists/acoustic analysts, covert security/maritime interdiction teams, and research staff (PIs, geneticists, neuroengineers, tech support).
Facilities Maintenance $1.4M/yr
[#2, #7] Mothership continuous operations (crew salaries, routine maintenance, dry-dock, winterization, spare parts) and onshore quarantine facility utilities/maintenance.
Logistics And Transport $775K/yr
[#4, #19, #29] Patrol-boat operations (fuel, crew, maintenance), contingency rapid-reaction air support retainer, and site-wide fuel & energy for vessels/generators/buoy charging.
Cover Story And Legal $740K/yr
[#23, #24, #25] Legal/diplomatic/permit costs and shell-company setup, community compensation/mitigation payments to fishermen/tourism operators, and covert cover/PR and misinformation budgets.
Research And Monitoring $462K/yr
[#10, #11, #13, #22, #26] Hydrophone/buoy maintenance, satellite/remote-sensing subscriptions and imagery analysis, unmanned systems ops & repairs, recurring cyber/EMC monitoring analysis, and secure data storage/processing/secure comms.
Supplies And Consumables $90K/yr
[#28, #32] Ongoing training refreshers/certification costs and upkeep for neutralization/extraordinary-response kit (consumables, storage upkeep).
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $5.9M/yr
88.0% probability / year
Normal year with steady monitoring, routine operations, and no major incidents.
no breaches routine maintenance standard monitoring operations
🚨 Minor Incident $6.3M/yr
10.0% probability / year +$400K vs baseline
Localized incident requiring short-term increased response: retrieval of one or a few animals, emergency repairs, limited legal/diplomatic engagement.
single-animal escape/accident localized equipment damage minor diplomatic negotiation
🚨 Major Breach $10.9M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$5.0M vs baseline
Significant breach or asset loss requiring vessel replacement, large-scale retrieval, sustained diplomatic/legal action and public containment efforts.
multi-animal defection or capture loss of mothership or multiple patrol boats international incident requiring negotiations
👥 Personnel 21 total
Role Count Notes
Medical Officer / Marine Veterinarian 3 [#16] Full-time marine mammal veterinarians and veterinary technicians reflected in recurring veterinary staffing costs.
Research Scientist 6 [#21] Principal investigators, geneticists, neuroengineers and research support staff.
Marine Biologist / Acoustic Analyst 4 [#17] Full-time observers, acoustic analysts and ethologists for behavioral monitoring.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 8 [#18] Covert operators and armed boat crews for exclusion zone enforcement and interdiction.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes list detailed line items and ranges allowing order-of-magnitude estimates, but broad ranges for many items (vessel purchase options, contingency sizing, staffing mixes) and operational variability (territorial waters, contracting vs owning) reduce precision.
← SCP-5952 ↑ All SCPs SCP-5954 →