Third Echelon
-Background-
Third Echelon marks a return to more "classical" methods of espionage powered by the latest technology for the aggressive collection of information. In other words, it goes back to the grueling world of human spies operating out in the field, risking their lives for the sake of capturing a photograph, recording a conversation or copying a computer hard drive. Splinter Cell operatives are recruited from the U.S. Special Forces communities of the Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force. They are then shaped into the "ultimate covert soldiers": specially-trained individuals capable of not only working alone in hostile environments, but of doing so without leaving a trace. Like a sliver of glass, a Splinter Cell is small, sharp, and nearly invisible. Thus, Third Echelon, a sub-agency of the NSA, consists of an elite team of strategists, hackers, and field operatives that work together as a team to respond to crises of information warfare with the highest degree of secrecy humanly possible.
As communications became more digital and sophisticated encryption became more expansive, passive collection simply was rendered inefficient. To address this, the NSA launched a top-secret initiative in 2003. Hoping to bridge the chasm between simply gathering actionable intelligence and acting on that intelligence, the NSA was directed by special Presidential charter to form Third Echelon, its own in-house covert operations unit created specifically to physically obtain intelligence in locations where all other means were exhausted.