Lydia Winters

Actress: Louise Griffiths

Name: Lydia Winters*Nationality:* French*Affiliation:* Allied Forces*Role:* Military Engineer, then Field Commander*Specialism:* Orbital technologies and precision weaponry*Major achievement:* Allied orbital defence network*Signature unit:* Athena Cannon*Conflict:* Post-war crisis*Game:* Red Alert 3: Uprising
Status: Active following the Third World War.Lydia Winters is a scientist and Commander in the Allied Forces, best known for designing much of the Allied Global Orbital Defence Network. Her work has enabled the Allies to strike their adversaries from space with remarkable precision.

In particular, she is responsible for the system used by the Athena Cannon, a piece of Artillery that does not fire directly at its target but instead designates it so that an orbital satellite can focus a powerful energy beam onto the area.

These technologies played a significant role during the Third World War and contributed to the Allies’ victory over the Empire of the Rising Sun and the Soviet Union.

During this period, however, Lydia remained largely behind the lines, working on the technological and strategic systems that supported the Allied army.

After the war, her success earned her a promotion to a much more high-profile role.

In Red Alert 3: Uprising, Lydia thus becomes a true field commander, capable of personally leading Allied Forces.

She naturally retains a strong preference for orbital technologies.

In the Commander’s Challenge, Lydia oversees, in particular, Athena’s Wrath, an operation built entirely around her area of expertise and the orbital network she helped to create.

The battlefield is then subjected to bombardments from space, illustrating just how far the Allies have taken the military exploitation of the technologies developed by Winters.

Lydia therefore represents a different facet from traditional Allied commanders: she is not primarily a Soldier turned strategist, but a technology specialist who became a Commander thanks to the military significance of her inventions.

She also finds herself in rivalry with several other Officers in the Commander’s Challenge. In particular, the Soviet commander Vera Belova mocks her more intellectual background by suggesting she go back to dealing with books rather than taking part directly in combat.

Lydia nevertheless demonstrates that she is perfectly capable of using the technologies she helped develop in the field.

The central theme can be summarised as follows:Lydia Winters initially won her battles from laboratories and orbital control centres; after the war, the Allies finally gave her the opportunity to directly command the weapons she had designed.