"52 weeks in a year means 26 annual training periods. I'm fairly certain that there are at least 26 brigade sized elements in the National Guard."
You're saying that the National Guard musters almost NONE FULL DIVISIONS?
The regular army is ten divisions.
"A brigade can cover a lot of frontage, although certainly not the whole border."
Then they'll just go around.
Cover the whole damn border, or you're just making the problem for someone else.
"Nonetheless, 132 Bradley Fighting Vehicles roaming up and down the border would certainly be a deterrent."
Until they throw tracks and break torsion bars near where I live. The terrain on much of the border is lousy if you're a track-toad.
Nope, you're going to need a lot of men, and you're going to need them full-time.
The brigade sized element is in keeping with the active duty Army realigning into brigade-sized units of action / units of employment. Under that system, the brigade, not the division, will be the smallest tactical unit capable of supporting itself in combat. The Guard calls them Seperate Infantry (or armor) Brigades. The 48th Enhanced Separate Infantry Brigade (Mech) from Georgia is a prime example.
Then they'll just go around. Cover the whole damn border, or you're just making the problem for someone else.
Of course they'll go around. I wouldn't expect the Guard to cover any but the highest-speed avenues of approach and channelize the illegals into the most undesirable terrain. You won't catch 100%, but combined with even half-assed interior enforcement, you'd have a much more secure border than we do now.
Until they throw tracks and break torsion bars near where I live. The terrain on much of the border is lousy if you're a track-toad.
That's the price of doing business with tracks if you drive them too hard. Another idea would be to go to motorized (ie, mounted in Humvee) units.
I never said this would be the be-all, end-all solution. I just said it'd be far better than what we have now.