28 April 1961: HYDRA Emergency Plan

Despite no articulated need from HYDRA’s users for the continuity of the system in an emergency, the army moved forward with its plans to protect HYDRA, “if for no other reason than to ensure that its radio facilities are available to increase the number of radio circuits to the UK and thus increase to probability of maintaining trans-Atlantic communications.” In this memorandum, W.E. Grant (D Sigs) outlines the plans for the protection of HYDRA: the transmitting station at Oshawa would need to be reinforced, fall-out proofed, and equipped with emergency power back-ups and living quarters. HYDRA’s receivers would move to the EASE site, where HYDRA would operate as a “separate and independent system,” within the system already installed at EASE.