[5] The role of the 203rd is unique in the Army and DoD as a whole, operating in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational capacity, producing predictive and tailored intelligence using captured enemy materiel to provide US forces with an better understanding of foreign capabilities.

Most members of the 203rd are reservists who report for duty one weekend a month and two weeks a year, while a cadre of full time soldiers and civilians provide day-to-day operational, logistical and administrative continuity.

The foreign material exploitation unit concept was finally formalized at Fort Bragg, North Carolina as Delta Company, 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, XVIII Airborne Corps.

[12][13] As a result of the Army's increasing demands, the unit grew in size, redesignated the 11th Military Intelligence Battalion (Provisional), 29 February 1980, with LTC James A. Bartlette assuming command.

Stateside, the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) was upgraded from its previous provisional status to a permanent unit, and the 513th Ml Brigade was witnessing substantial reconfiguration.

The change was intended to support both day-to-day collection and analysis of materiel with the capability to quickly bring in and deploy additional assets as required by real world situations.

[1] The unit reached its current configuration in late 2011 when the battalion became fully a reserve component, losing its active duty companies, and 96-hour deployment capability.

[30] As time went on the unit established a consistent presence in alliance maintenance operations, with heavy involvement in training and integration of foreign partner forces.

In October 1995, components of the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade, including much of the 203rd as well as the 372nd MI Company deployed to the Republic of Korea to participate in exercise Foal Eagle 95, on a large scale simulated combined TECHINT mission with counterparts from the ROK Armed Forces.

[32] The first element arrived in Grenada on 31 October 1983 and was tasked to identify, sort, and provide approximate inventories of foreign material and to establish priorities for shipment to the US.

[32][33][1] In 1990 the battalion deployed soldiers in support of Operation Just Cause, identifying and cataloging more than 25,000 foreign material items and weapons evacuated from Panama.

[32] As tensions flared and Iraq pushed into Kuwait, the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade, including the 203rd, arrived in-theatre in October 1990 to support US Central Command.

The 203rd examined the fragments, and helped designer Raytheon and the Army develop changes to the Patriot air defense system which improved its effectiveness against the Soviet-made ballistic missile.

[24] In total during Operation Desert Storm, the 203rd was responsible for having obtained six out of one US intelligence agency's "top 10" list of desired foreign materiel items.

[24] During the conflict, US forces ability to detect biological weapons in the field was extremely limited, consisting only of experimental sampling systems and laboratory testing undertaken by a small group responsible for the whole theater of operation.

The CSD established the forward JCMEC in Port-au-Prince, subsequently retrieving, identifying, and storing more than 10,000 foreign weapons, including those received as part of a "Cash for Guns" program.

The unit touched down in the region as part of Operation Joint Endeavor just as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia began in earnest, with highly publicized arrest warrants for senior figures in the conflict including Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić.

[24] The battalion suffered one casualty in Bosnia, when in July 1997 a specialist died at a British field hospital following a motor vehicle accident north of Donji Vakuf, in the British-controlled Multi-National Division (South-West) area of operation.

[40][41][42] In October 2002, members of the battalion staff were briefed on the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) vision of the 203rd's role in upcoming operations in Iraq.

After training for three months in the austere northern Kuwaiti desert, A Company crossed the berm into Iraq with V Corps and 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) 5 and 6 April 2003, while the remainder of the battalion was staging in several locations in theater, including Udairi and Camp Doha, Kuwait.

– LTC James V. "Boe" Young Jr.The LRS soldiers from H Company (Long Range Surveillance), 221st MI Battalion, were utilized extensively, accompanying almost every JCMEC collection mission.

Its mission was to pack and ship the captured materials concentrated there by British and US Navy TECHINT units that had already moved forward to Baghdad International Airport.

After accompanying the move to Tallil, the battalion commander, portions of the operations and intelligence staffs, and C Company established the C/JCMEC Forward at Baghdad International Airport.

"[47][48] In his 1 June letter, Young reported having conducted over 100 joint missions in the greater Baghdad area with coalition partners from the UK and Australia, as well as elements from the Defense Intelligence Agency and security from a group of clandestine long-range surveillance (LRS) infantry.

On 25 June, LTC Young reported the 203rd's first direct enemy attack of the war in the form of a roadside IED, which caused minor shrapnel injuries to some members of the LRS team.

[49] Many of the shells were in poor condition, and some were empty or held nonlethal liquid, but some of the weapons analyzed contained the toxic nerve agent Sarin in far higher concentration than analysts had expected given their age.

[49] As they processed the munitions, the 203rd held some shells back from the stockpile slated for destruction for dissection and evaluation, which they conducted with a cast iron bathtub and a drill on the premises of the Iraq Survey Group headquarters at Camp Slayer.

[49] In early July 2003, 1st Platoon, Charlie Company of the 203rd was investigating whether weapons of mass destruction were located at Al-Taqaddum Air Base, 75 miles west of Baghdad.

In it, members of the 203rd were towing the aircraft with an M1070 tractor that had let's roll, the last reported words of United Airlines Flight 93 victim Todd Beamer, written on the cab.

[62][64] China France Germany Soviet Union Ukraine Yugoslavia An unspecified 7.62mm machine gun from the 203rd has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution and is housed in the non-display archives of the National Museum of American History.