SCP-5961 — SCP-5961 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-5961 Unknown ~ medium confidence

SCP-5961

Expected annual

$39.7M

One-time setup

$81.0M

Annual recurring

$36.2M

Personnel

Initial capital (one-time) ~ $81.1M driven by ROV/AUV purchases, sensor suites, vessels, and R&D setup; recurring annual costs ~ $36.2M driven by staffing, ongoing ROV/vessel ops, replacement reserves and contingency funding.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $81.0M

Initial Research And Lab Setup $20.1M

[#14, #20] Initial containment R&D program setup, lab buildout and initial health/safety/decon equipment.

Equipment $17.8M

[#2, #4, #16] Permanent perimeter sensor packages, purchase/commissioning of deep-rated ROV/AUV fleet, and long-life buoy/power hardware (aggregated mid-range estimates).

Initial Site Survey And Mobilization $15.0M

[#1] Initial deep-sea survey and site characterization mobilizations for assumed regional set of sites (aggregated per-site survey costs).

Containment Prototype Development $12.0M

[#23] One-time prototype trials for deep containment hardware / deterrent systems (engineering prototype & testing).

Vessel Capital Purchase $9.6M

[#6] Purchase of regional vessel assets (one multipurpose response vessel + fast surface craft aggregate).

Facilities $6.5M

[#9] One-time fixed shore facility construction / fit-out for a regional control center (mid-range estimate).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $36.2M/yr

Replacement Depreciation Reserve $8.1M/yr

[#25] Annual capital replacement reserve (approx. 10% of deployed capital, region-level depreciation planning).

Research And Monitoring $6.0M/yr

[#14, #17] Ongoing containment R&D budget and data analysis/archival / analyst & ML operations (regional aggregated).

Staff Wages $5.0M/yr

[#10, #11] Salaries and benefits for a regional team (research scientists, ROV pilots/technicians, engineers, security, admin) aggregated.

Contingency Reserve $5.0M/yr

[#24] Annual contribution to contingency/catastrophe reserve for large uncontrolled events or legal fallout.

Vessel Charter Operations $2.5M/yr

[#8] Charter and deep-diving vessel day-rates averaged to annual expected charter operations (flexible/mobilization use).

Vessel Operating Costs $2.2M/yr

[#7, #6] Operating costs for owned vessels (crew, fuel, maintenance, insurance) for regional fleet.

Supplies And Consumables $2.0M/yr

[#22, #20] Site consumables, spare parts, replacement buoy components and H&S consumables.

Rov Operations Maintenance $1.7M/yr

[#5] Annual operations & maintenance per ROV/AUV fleet (technician labor, spares, servicing aggregated).

Cover Story And Legal $1.2M/yr

[#12, #13, #19] Cover Story G.96 maintenance, PR, legal/diplomatic/permitting costs and environmental compliance budget (aggregated).

Telemetry And Comms $750K/yr

[#3] Ongoing perimeter telemetry, satellite bandwidth, Iridium/AIS subscriptions and uplink/downlink costs for active sites.

Logistics And Transport $500K/yr

[#22] Routine logistics, shipping, customs and small mobilizations (non-charter vessel logistics).

Emergency Salvage Retainer $500K/yr

[#15] Retainer for on-call salvage/deep-recovery specialists (mobilization costs handled as incident deltas).

Facilities Maintenance $300K/yr

[#9] Ongoing shore facility lease/maintenance costs (lease-equivalent / facility upkeep).

Power Node Maintenance $150K/yr

[#16] Battery replacement and maintenance for long-life surface buoys and subsea nodes (annual replacement).

Satellite And Ocean Subscriptions $150K/yr

[#18] Satellite imagery tasking and oceanographic data feed subscriptions for regional monitoring.

Training And Exercises $100K/yr

[#21] Annual training, certifications and readiness exercises.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $36.2M/yr

64.5% probability / year

Normal operational year with routine maintenance, charters and ongoing R&D; no major incidents.

routine_ops scheduled_charters normal_data_processing

🚨 Minor Incident $39.7M/yr

30.0% probability / year +$3.5M vs baseline

Single-site event requiring rapid mobilization and one major charter/mobilization plus targeted salvage and PR/legal response.

single_site_event ROV/charter_mobilization limited_media_exposure

🚨 Major Breach $60.2M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$24.0M vs baseline

Multi-site or high-impact event with coastal impacts requiring mass mobilization, large salvage, contingency draw and major PR/legal costs.

multi-site_event coastal_impacts mass_media_exposure

🚨 Catastrophic Breach $286.2M/yr

0.5% probability / year +$250.0M vs baseline

Extremely rare catastrophic event (mass casualties, international incident) requiring emergency response, large legal/settlement payouts and major program scaling.

large_scale_impact international_political_intervention extensive_infrastructure_damage

👥 Personnel 25 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	6	Marine scientists and analysts (part of regional staffing).
ROV Pilot / Technician	6	Pilots and vehicle technicians supporting ROV/AUV operations.
Engineer / Maintenance	4	Engineering support for vessels, moorings, power nodes and prototypes.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	6	On-site and maritime security teams distributed across active sites.
Administrative Staff	2	Program managers, logistics and admin support.
Site Director / Executive Staff	1	Regional program lead / senior oversight.

📋 Confidence Notes

Estimates are medium confidence: analyst notes provide ranges for each line item but key drivers (number of active sites, frequency of events, and exact procurement choices) are uncertain. A regional assumption (10 active sites) was used to aggregate per-site figures; results will scale linearly with site count.

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