The 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion was constituted on 1 June 1991 in the
California Army National Guard, and organized and Federally recognized with its headquarters at
Fort Funston in
San Francisco on 16 January 1992. On 1 September 1997, its Company E was allotted to the
Massachusetts Army National Guard; the latter was reorganized and redesignated as Company D on 1 October 2001. The battalion was ordered to active duty on 10 February 2003 for the
2003 invasion of Iraq, attached to the
205th Military Intelligence Brigade. The battalion returned to the United States and was released from active duty on 25 May 2004, reverting to state control. Its mobilization for
Operation United Assistance was announced in November 2014.
COVID-19 Humanitarian Mission On 20 March 2020, California Governor
Gavin Newsom alerted the
California National Guard to be prepared to conduct a COVID-19 mission. The 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion was activated on emergency state active duty for the COVID-19 Humanitarian Mission and arrived at the Sacramento Food Bank to assist in packing food boxes for distribution, the following day. On Monday, 23 March 2020, the battalion was shifted to support food packing and distribution operations at
Second Harvest of Silicon Valley in San Jose. The following day, the battalion began supporting two additional food bank locations; the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano County in Fairfield, CA and the Napa Food Bank in Napa, CA.
Panther Strike As part of the
300th Military Intelligence Brigade, the battalion rotates the duty of hosting the brigade-level Exercise Panther Strike which it did last in 2014 and 2019. Panther Strike is a multi-national, multi-echelon military intelligence (MI) training exercise. The two-week exercise develops and enhances technical competence in
counterintelligence (CI),
human intelligence (HUMINT),
geospatial intelligence (GEOINT),
open source intelligence (OSINT), and
signals intelligence (SIGINT) collective and individual tasks. Soldiers train in a realistic and challenging "train as they fight" non-garrison environment alongside NATO multi-national partners.
Army Combat Fitness Test In October, 2018, the 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion was the first battalion in the
National Guard to field test the
Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). ==Subordinate units==