Third Echelon

Third Echelon (sometimes spelled 3rd Echelon, abbreviated as 3ECH and 3E) was a top-secret initiative within the various intelligence branches of the National Security Agency (NSA) established in 2003 (or the 1990s according to the novels and Splinter Cell: Essentials). Its position within the U.S. intelligence community was at the forefront in the War on Information.

Third Echelon originally appeared within the Splinter Cell series. However as Tom Clancy's works take place in the same universe, it is also tied in with EndWar and makes a minor appearance within the game itself.

Operations within EndWar

• In EndWar, Third Echelon is fed false intelligence by Russia which leads them to believe the European defence minister, François Pulain, is responsible for the April 4th attacks on the Kennedy Space Center and that Pulain had the other attacks as false flag operations to divert attention. This misinformation results in the attempted kidnapping of Pulain as part of the Prelude to War.
• Tom Clancy's EndWar: The Hunted: Director Grimsdottir sends two Splinter Cells on a mission with a Ghost Recon team to find the "Snow Maiden" in 2021.
• Tom Clancy's EndWar: The Missing: Third Echelon assists the Joint Strike Force in the war effort. Two Splinter Cells are stationed at Spetznaz HQ at Fort Levski, and are fed false information. SC Thomas Voeckler is stationed in Chechnya to find stolen weapons and assists a downed pilot. After Ganjin sleeper agent Major Dennison was activated, 11 Splinter Cells in England and four in Moscow went missing. Voeckler later helped arrest Christopher Theron.

Leon Coltrane

Leon Coltrane (callsign: Icefish) is a Splinter Cell working for Third Echelon under Director w:c:splintercell:Anna Grímsdóttir Anna Grímsdóttir in 2015. His first and only appearance was in a short narrative entitled w:c:splintercell:The End Begins: Splinter Cell The End Begins: Splinter Cell and published November 4, 2008 on Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's EndWar web site.

Coltrane has only been shown to exist in the EndWar universe and with the termination of Third Echelon in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, it is unlikely that the events of "The End Begins: Splinter Cell" are canon to the Splinter Cell Universe.