SCP-879 — SCP-879 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-879 Euclid ~ medium confidence

SCP-879

Expected annual

$27.4M

One-time setup

$72.5M

Annual recurring

$25.2M

Personnel

First-year deployment requires approximately $72,500,000 in one-time costs (major driver: contingency/reserve and specialized tank/retrofits) and ongoing annual operations of roughly $25,197,500, driven primarily by three research ships, staff wages, R&D, and perimeter/cover costs.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $72.5M

Contingency Reserve $50.0M

[#22] Insurance/contingency / catastrophic breach reserve (recommended mid-range $50M)

Facilities $8.0M

[#1] Reinforced aquatic specimen tank construction and installation ($8M mid-range)

Equipment $5.6M

[#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9, #11] Life-support systems, HVAC/air handling, automated sedation/dosing systems, H2S handling infrastructure, sterilization/decon equipment, underwater/sensor network, remote servers, and drone procurement (summed mid-range estimates)

Medevac Hardware $3.0M

[#15] Helicopter + fast response vessel purchase / rapid response hardware (mid-range combined)

Ship Retrofit $2.2M

[#10] Retrofit/upgrade of three dedicated research/observation ships (total mid-range)

Interdiction Hardware $1.0M

[#16] Emergency containment & interdiction hardware (booms, nets, barriers) (mid-range)

Medical Facility Setup $850K

[#17] Operating theater / large-animal surgical setup and specialized tools (mid-range)

Initial Research And Lab Setup $750K

[#18] Specialized chemical/pheromone research lab setup (mid-range)

Wastewater Upgrade $450K

[#23] Wastewater/effluent tertiary chemical treatment upgrade (mid-range)

Perimeter Equipment $400K

[#12] Buoy/radar/perimeter equipment for 20 km maritime exclusion (mid-range)

Legal Cover Setup $200K

[#20] Initial legal/cover-story / covert funding setup (mid-range)

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $25.2M/yr

Logistics And Transport $13.2M/yr

[#10, #11, #12, #15] Three research/observation ship operations (crew, fuel, maintenance), drone fleet maintenance/replacements, perimeter patrol operations, rapid-response vessel/helicopter ops (summed mid-range)

Research And Monitoring $3.2M/yr

[#8, #9, #18, #26] Sensor/data storage maintenance, server/bandwidth/storage costs, dedicated pheromone R&D program, ongoing remote monitoring of SCP-879-2 specimens (summed mid-range)

Staff Wages $3.0M/yr

[#14] On-site staff salaries: ~30 FTEs × ~$100k fully-loaded average

Cover Story And Legal $2.4M/yr

[#13, #20] Compensation/leases to local fisheries & civilians plus ongoing legal/cover-story costs (mid-range sums)

Capital Amortization $1.2M/yr

[#25] Replacement/upgrade amortization reserve for long-term containment technology (mid-range)

Medical Retainer $600K/yr

[#17] Surgeon & OR on-call retainer, consumables for surgical readiness (mid-range)

Facilities Maintenance $310K/yr

[#2, #3] Life-support systems power/maintenance and HVAC/air handling operation & filter replacement (mid-range)

Contingency Administration $250K/yr

[#22] Administration, planning & governance costs for contingency/catastrophic breach fund (annual)

Supplies And Consumables $220K/yr

[#4, #5, #6, #7] Sedatives/drugs consumables, H2S consumables & sensor calibration, sterilization consumables & waste disposal, PPE rotations (mid-range)

Ethics And Oversight $162K/yr

[#27] Psychological/ethical oversight, review boards & documentation security (mid-range)

Amnestic And Psych $150K/yr

[#21] Amnestic/pharmaceutical countermeasures and psychological support for exposed staff (mid-range)

Training And Drills $140K/yr

[#24] Training, drills, SOP updates and cross-disciplinary exercises (mid-range)

Interdiction Upkeep $125K/yr

[#16] Drills & upkeep for emergency containment & interdiction hardware (mid-range)

Hazardous Waste Management $125K/yr

[#19] Hazardous waste management and biosecurity disposal contracts (mid-range)

Wastewater Operations $85K/yr

[#23] Operations & sampling for wastewater/effluent treatment (mid-range)

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $25.2M/yr

88.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine operations and no major containment incidents.

routine_operations scheduled_maintenance ongoing_research

🚨 Minor Incident $27.7M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$2.5M vs baseline

Localized containment incident or equipment failure requiring emergency response, limited repairs, and temporary ship/drone surge.

localized_breach equipment_failure limited_exposure

🚨 Major Breach $75.2M/yr

4.0% probability / year +$50.0M vs baseline

Significant containment failure with public exposure, large-scale cleanup, replacement of major assets, and extensive legal/compensation costs.

catastrophic_breach public_exposure loss_of_ships_or_major_assets

👥 Personnel 30 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	6	[#14] Chemists/neurobiology staff for pheromone research and monitoring
Marine Biologist	6	[#14] Marine specialists for animal care and behavior monitoring
Veterinarian / Anesthesiologist	2	[#14] Surgical and anesthetic specialists for sedation and emergency procedures
Engineer / Maintenance	6	[#14] Life-support, HVAC, pumps, sensor, and ship/vehicle maintenance
Security Officer / MTF Agent	6	[#14] Perimeter enforcement, ship security, and rapid-response teams
Medical Officer	2	[#14] On-call OR support, medevac coordination
Administrative Staff	2	[#14] Logistics, legal liaison, cover-story coordination

📋 Confidence Notes

Estimates use mid-range values from detailed analyst notes and capture primary drivers, but many assumptions remain (asset ownership vs charter, local rates, exact staffing mixes, and contingency sizing), so uncertainty is moderate.

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