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SCP-6983 Ticonderoga1 ~ medium confidence
SCP-6983
Expected annual
$70.7M
One-time setup
$237.4M
Annual recurring
$69.0M
Personnel
50
Initial one-time setup is large (≈$237M) driven by contingency reserves, firmware/uplink campaigns, rapid-response hardware and compute/infrastructure; recurring annual costs are substantial (≈$69M/yr) driven by staff wages, ongoing cover payments, firmware/uplink operations and contingency/legal readiness.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $237.4M
Contingency Reserve One Time $100.0M
[#21] Large rapid-mobilization reserve for emergency launches, mass amnestics, diplomacy.
Rapid Response Space Assets One Time $40.0M
[#15] Initial build/R&D/launch manifest for small robotic inspection spacecraft / swarm.
Firmware Uplink Initial Campaign One Time $30.0M
[#7] Initial global firmware/patch campaign to inject Binary_Star into ~2,000 targets.
High Energy Lab One Time $15.0M
[#14] Vacuum chambers, pulsed-power supplies and diagnostics for welding-replication studies.
Monitoring Hdr One Time $12.5M
[#13] HDR imaging capability development (ground arrays and optional small telescope).
Secure Compute Infrastructure One Time $9.0M
[#4] On-prem GPU/TPU cluster, air-gapped servers, redundancy and hardened power/UPS.
Hardened Secure Bunkers One Time $7.5M
[#16] Hardened EM/EMP/thermal facilities, air-gapped backups and secure ops centers.
Binary Star Development One Time $5.0M
[#3] One-time development cost for Binary_Star.aic design, cross-platform QA.
Ground Control Compromises One Time $4.5M
[#6] Physical covert installation and hardened spares for ~15–30 facilities.
Implants Manufacture Insertion Capability One Time $4.5M
[#8] Initial trusted microcontroller/FPGA production & clandestine insertion capability.
Covert Recruitment And Placement $3.5M
[#1] Covert recruitment, false employment, relocation to place ~20–50 assets.
Insurance And Shell Companies Formation One Time $1.2M
[#26] One-time formation costs for shell companies, insurance and legal shields.
Specialist Imaging Equipment One Time $1.1M
[#28] Prototyping and procurement of ND filters, ultra-fast shutters and photon-counting detectors.
Amnestic Program Setup One Time $1.0M
[#11] Secure medical/amnestic treatment suite and training for Class B amnestics.
Backup Disaster Recovery One Time $1.0M
[#24] Air-gapped off-site mirrors, hardened off-site mirrors and secure courier procedures.
Cyber Tooling And Zero Day Acquisition One Time $500K
[#10] One-time tooling and zero-day acquisition for offensive cyber purge operations.
Forensics Archiving One Time $500K
[#23] One-time setup of digital forensics and long-term archiving capability.
Safety Medical Equipment One Time $300K
[#29] Field medical equipment and emergency medical stockpile initial purchase.
Transportation Vehicles And Equipment One Time $200K
[#25] Vehicles and secure shipping equipment initial purchase.
Facilities $0
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Equipment $0
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Initial Research And Lab Setup $0
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🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $69.0M/yr
Research And Monitoring $10.1M/yr
[#13, #14, #18, #23, #30] Ongoing ops for HDR monitoring, high-energy lab consumables, external grants/cover funding, forensics ops and subscriptions to SSA/data feeds.
Legal Diplomatic Contingencies $10.0M/yr
[#20] Retainers, emergency diplomatic channels and slush funds for foreign officials (scenario-dependent but budgeted yearly).
Staff Wages $9.0M/yr
[#17] Salaries and overhead for baseline core team (~50 FTEs; AI researchers, astrophysicists, firmware engineers, sysadmins, field techs, legal/PR).
Firmware Uplink Ongoing $8.0M/yr
[#7] Ongoing tailoring and uplink campaigns for new launches and follow-ups (~$8M/yr).
Cover Salaries And Payments $7.0M/yr
[#2] Ongoing salary top-ups, hush payments and cover payrolls for placed insiders (~30 persons).
Rapid Response Operations $5.0M/yr
[#15] Ops, replacements and launch manifesting for robotic inspection spacecraft / cubesats.
Cover Story And Legal $3.0M/yr
[#19] Disinformation, media operations and public-relations activities to sustain cover narratives.
Ground Station Leasing $2.5M/yr
[#9] Leases and covert partnerships for commercial ground-station access.
Cyber Operations Purge $2.5M/yr
[#10] Offensive cyber ops, forensics and covert deletion activities (annual ops).
Logistics And Transport $2.0M/yr
[#25] Secure transport, charters, discreet shipping and logistics for covert installs and retrievals.
Amnestic Operations $1.5M/yr
[#12] Class B amnestic administrations and associated medical supervision & aftercare (assumes ~100 administrations/yr midpoint).
Implants Manufacture Ongoing $1.2M/yr
[#8] Ongoing production & clandestine insertion for new hardware builds.
Red Team And Security Auditing $1.2M/yr
[#22] Ongoing penetration testing, red-team simulations and zero-day procurement cadence.
Hardened Facilities Ops And Security $1.2M/yr
[#16] Operations & security manpower for hardened bunkers, armed guards and biometric access.
Secure Compute Ops $1.0M/yr
[#4] Power, cooling, maintenance and occasional cloud-bursting for on-prem inference/training infrastructure.
Data Storage And Bandwidth $1.0M/yr
[#5] Petabyte-class archival storage, high-bandwidth links and data egress/erasure operations.
Binary Star Maintenance And Updates $750K/yr
[#3] Yearly maintenance, updates and QA for Binary_Star.aic.
Insurance And Corporate Maintenance $625K/yr
[#26] Ongoing bookkeeping, audits and maintenance of corporate/legal shields and insurance.
Safety And Medical Ops $550K/yr
[#29] Field medic staffing, consumables and evacuation readiness costs.
Personnel Vetting And Clearances $400K/yr
[#27] Background checks, polygraphs and psychological screening cadence.
Backup Disaster Recovery Ops $250K/yr
[#24] Off-site mirror maintenance, courier services and periodic restore drills.
Specialist Equipment Replacement $100K/yr
[#28] Replacement & upgrade cycle for ND filters, shutters, photon-counting detectors.
Facilities Maintenance $0/yr
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Supplies And Consumables $0/yr
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⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $69.0M/yr
94.0% probability / year
Normal operational year with no major incidents; routine ops, maintenance, and cover payments only.
no_public_incident normal_launch_and_uplink_activity routine_maintenance
🚨 Minor Incident $79.0M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$10.0M vs baseline
Localized exposure or discovery requiring targeted amnestics, emergency PR/legal response, and limited contingency usage.
small_public_leak localized data exposure single-day satellite anomaly witnessed by civilians
🚨 Major Breach $189.0M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$120.0M vs baseline
Significant breach or widely observed anomalous activity requiring large-scale mobilization: emergency launches, mass amnestic campaigns, diplomatic payouts and contingency fund drawdown.
widespread public observation international diplomatic incident loss of multiple Binary_Star mirrors/backups
👥 Personnel 50 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 12 Astrophysicists and experimental physicists for observation and lab studies.
AI / Software Engineer 8 Binary_Star development, maintenance and embedded porting.
Firmware Engineer 6 Reverse-engineering and tailored firmware for diverse RTOS/hardware targets.
Sysadmin / IT 4 Operate air-gapped clusters, backups and inference infrastructure.
Field Technician / Ops 8 Covert install teams, ground-station operators and launch support.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 6 Facility security, rapid response and armed protection for sensitive sites.
Medical Officer 2 Amnestic administration supervision and medical aftercare.
Administrative Staff / Legal / PR 4 Program management, legal retainers, PR/disinformation coordination.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide ranges and fairly specific program components, enabling moderate confidence in order-of-magnitude estimates; significant uncertainty remains in incident probabilities, contingency sizing and long-term maintenance costs.
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