Secrecy cannot justify an unsafe starship crew

Is the BC-304's tiny crew a reasonable consequence of keeping the Stargate program secret?

No; secrecy may favor fewer people, but the crew still must be large enough for safe watches, maintenance, and damage control.

The commenter proposes that the program minimizes crew to reduce disclosure. The reply accepts secrecy as a design pressure but insists that it cannot override the practical minimum needed to operate and protect the ship. Watches, maintenance, damage control, and local monitoring remain continuous requirements regardless of classification. Once manning falls below that threshold, fatigue and missed failures become predictable rather than exceptional. The program would then be trading an incremental disclosure risk for avoidable deaths and the possible loss of an irreplaceable warship.