The 260th Military Intelligence Battalion (Linguist) is unique within the Total Force. It is part of an initiative to conserve perishable linguist and intelligence skills. Under the auspices of the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade, Utah Army National Guard, six Reserve Component Linguist units were formed throughout the Continental United States. The 260th Military Battalion (Linguist) was created in the Florida Army National Guard on October 1, 1988 as both intelligence and a linguist unit. The Battalion received its Federal Recognition at Miami, Florida on December 1, 1990.
The Battalion Headquarters Detachment and Alpha Company are located in Miami, Florida. Bravo Company is located in Pinellas Park and the Charlie Detachment is located in Jacksonville. The 260th is not meant to be a maneuver unit at the battalion or company level. Instead, Counterintelligence, Interrogation and Linguist teams are designed to deploy separately in order to provide linguist and military intelligence assets to support other intelligence organizations and units under the Army’s concept of Tailoring Force. Both Alpha and Bravo companies consist of 16 five-man human intelligence teams. The Headquarters Company is designed to direct the training, logistics and administrative operations of the line units.
Currently, the assigned languages of the battalion are Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Arabic, Persian, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, and Russian. Soldiers within the battalion continue to use their linguist and intelligence skills to support different Federal, State and local agencies.