← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-9470 Argus1 ~ medium confidence
SCP-9470
Expected annual
$32.2M
One-time setup
$84.0M
Annual recurring
$31.5M
Personnel
95
One-time capital costs to establish hardened containment, research, and production capability are large (~$84M), driven primarily by a political-risk contingency reserve and facility/equipment setup; annual recurring costs (~$31.5M/yr) are dominated by personnel (handlers, security, medical, and researchers), ongoing replacement/production, influence/legal operations, and secure communications/IT upkeep.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $84.0M
Political Risk Reserve $50.0M
[#24] One-time held contingency/reserve for political-risk events, mass amnestic campaigns, major legal/coverup expenses (recommended large reserve).
Facilities $17.5M
[#1] Dedicated hardened containment wing with 35+ containment modules, airlocks, EMP/EM shielding, surgical suites, decontamination, evidence rooms, perimeter hardening and specialized containment outfitting.
Equipment $8.4M
[#9, #16, #10, #23, #27, #20, #12, #8] One-time equipment and hardware: secure cochlear/comms infrastructure, forensic instrumentation, initial spare-implant stock, hardened cybersecurity systems, record/IT setup, simulation environment, initial identity-creation tooling, and production/imprinting apparatus setup.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $5.0M
[#7] Bioengineering/L4 R&D lab buildout and initial instrumentation for implant/neural research (BSL/L4 requirements).
Legal Emergency Reserve $2.5M
[#17] Emergency legal/litigation reserve for major incidents requiring immediate off-the-books legal action or settlements.
Decommissioning Reserve $625K
[#22] One-time fleet decommissioning planning reserve for end-of-life instance disposal, autopsy, and secure component destruction.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $31.5M/yr
Staff Wages $13.2M/yr
[#3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #30] Salaries+benefits for security (guards/supervisors), 35 handlers, embedded MTF liaisons, medical staff (surgeons + support), R&D staff, and program/admin personnel.
Cover Story And Legal $5.8M/yr
[#12, #13, #17, #18, #25, #27] Ongoing identity maintenance (excluded from this line item's initial cost), media manipulation/propaganda budgets, legal counsel retainer and program management, covert payments/influence, plausible-deniability projects, and record redaction/archival staff/operations.
Supplies And Consumables $2.2M/yr
[#7, #10, #14, #16, #29] Reagents and consumables for L4 research, spare implant consumables and batteries, amnestic pharmaceuticals and aftercare, forensic consumables/secure cold-storage, prosthetics/rehab provisioning.
Replacement Production $2.0M/yr
[#8] Recurring budget for producing replacement SCP-9470 instances (biotech/imprinting runs); covers 1–3 replacement events annually in a moderate program.
Political Risk Replenish $2.0M/yr
[#24] Annual top-up/replenishment for the political-risk/contingency reserve to maintain readiness for large-scale coverups or legal crises.
Logistics And Transport $1.7M/yr
[#11, #26] Field operations: travel, safehouses, clandestine support teams, covert transport of instances/implants/samples, armored logistics and secure courier services.
Facilities Maintenance $1.2M/yr
[#2] Annual O&M: utilities, HVAC/isolation power, UPS/gensets maintenance, routine building upkeep, janitorial, insurance-equivalent internal costs, and small capital replacements.
Cybersecurity $600K/yr
[#23] Annual cybersecurity, audits, breach insurance, secure-database operations protecting identities, keys, and redaction tools.
Psychological Screening $575K/yr
[#19] Continuous psychological vetting, counseling, polygraphs, integrity monitoring for handlers and critical staff.
Research And Monitoring $540K/yr
[#5, #7, #28] Ongoing research operations budget (beyond staff salaries), embedded MTF covert ops budgets, and public-health/epidemiology monitoring liaisons with hospitals.
Comms Operations $350K/yr
[#9] Annual maintenance, key rotation, secure servers, firmware updates, anti-jamming and secure-comm operations for cochlear-implant network.
Training And Simulation $350K/yr
[#20] Annual training, simulations, role-players, drills, and retraining for handlers and retrieval teams.
Victim Care And Evidence Handling $300K/yr
[#15] Victim hospitalization, compensation, prosthetics/rehab coordination, and evidence handling/disposal costs averaged annually.
D Class Processing $275K/yr
[#21] Costs to process and integrate provided D-class individuals (transfer, housing, medical evaluation, program overhead).
Implant Spare Parts $125K/yr
[#10] Annual spare implant replacements, repair kits, batteries and secure supply chain replenishment.
Identity Maintenance $105K/yr
[#12] Annual maintenance for deep-cover identities (records, credit histories, ongoing digital/physical presence costs).
Decommissioning Operations $50K/yr
[#22] Annual minor expenses for decommissioning/retirement operations and small disposals of components.
Bio Storage Processing $50K/yr
[#15, #16] Secure BSL sample storage, evidence handling, cold-storage and consumables for biological samples.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $31.5M/yr
91.0% probability / year
Normal operational year with no major exposures; routine replacements and steady covert operations.
no_breach routine_replacements standard_ops
🚨 Minor Incident $34.5M/yr
8.0% probability / year +$3.0M vs baseline
Limited exposure or capture of a single instance requiring targeted response, local amnestics, replacement production, and increased legal/PR activity.
single_instance_capture local_veil_exposure targeted_media_scrubbing
🚨 Major Breach $71.5M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$40.0M vs baseline
Significant Veil breach or public exposure, multiple instance captures or systemic leak requiring mass amnestics, large-scale replacements, legal battles, and major contingency spending.
mass_leak political_exposure large-scale_capture
👥 Personnel 95 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / Guard 16 [#3] 24/7 guard coverage, supervisors and shift overlap for containment suites and perimeter security.
Handler Personnel 35 [#4] One handler per instance (35); full-time, high-clearance, trained for implant control and rapid deployment.
MTF Liaison / Embedded Agent 7 [#5] Embedded MTF monitoring team members assigned to audit and monitor GoI-06 usage and report failures.
Research Scientist 10 [#7] Bioengineering and R&D researchers studying creation mechanism, implants, and fail-safes.
Medical Officer (Surgeon) 4 [#6] Dedicated surgeons for OR-level care, trauma, and surgical examination of hosts and incidents.
Medical Technician / Support 8 [#6] Anesthesiology techs, post-op care, and surgical support staff.
Engineer / Maintenance 4 [#2, #9] Facilities engineers for environmental controls, EMP/EM shielding maintenance, and comms/generator upkeep.
Administrative Staff 6 [#30] Program managers, clerical, procurement, finance and audit personnel managing daily operations and budgets.
Cybersecurity Specialist 2 [#23] Staff to maintain secure databases, key management, and perform audits.
Training Officer / Simulation Staff 3 [#20] Trainers, simulation designers, and role-players for drills and long-term infiltration simulations.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide many specific line items and plausible ranges, enabling a reasoned estimate; however ranges are wide and many costs (production method, political-reserve sizing, incident frequency) are uncertain, so medium confidence is appropriate.
← SCP-9466 ↑ All SCPs SCP-9471 →