The Hydra was initially developed as a dedicated minesweeping vehicle. Although it served well in this roll there was a feeling that the basic chassis was capable of doing more. There were many times that the Hydra would find itself in a position to aid other vehicles that had become stranded but found itself ill equiped to do so. Therefore it was decided to begin upgrading the functionality of the machine so it could better handle the different situations it found itself in.

      The first addition was a huge hydraulically operated, Ferro-Fibrous armor plate to the front of the Hydra.  This was to be used to plow up anti-personnel minefields when the use of the flail was not the best solution.  But its primary function was to push the other damaged vehicles free of the mine field they were trapped and disabled in. The problem with this approach was that the Hydra almost always had to push the already damaged vehicle through the remainder of the mine field, which was often counterproductive.

      It was decided to mount a massive, recovery derrick on the chassis that could be used to lift and tow a damaged vehicle to safety.  This worked well and the armored, bulldozer plate was retained because it provided so much extra  protection to the Hydra as well as serving its original purpose.