one question would be how does the 40th counterattacks - and how much armor they ever got - it sure looks like from the various vehicles they have that they didnt get much armor when the time came to reorganized the division in the US - they have a wide variety including CEV's as tanks
so while they may have got better tanks how many did they get? Is this a WWII situation for the 40th - i.e. the Germans had better tanks than the Americans but a heck of a lot less than the US did - so were the few better MBT's that they got overwhelmed by larger numbers of Mexican armored cars - (i.e. its one thing if they got 100 tanks, a much different thing if they only got 25)
or did the 40th get cocky and do something stupid - i.e. the Mexican stuff is junk why the hell should we care - and get themselves ambushed by ERC-90's at effective range? I could easily see the Mexican's getting one heck of a black eye in an opern field battle then sucking the 40th into where they could ambush them, either in an urban environment or other places that offer concealment - especially if the 40th didnt have any air support
in other words did the commander make the mistake the Germans made in Stalingrad and let themselves get sucked into a tank battle in built up terrain?
or you could have the Mexicans get the T-55's from Nicaragua (and maybe even some T-64's from Cuba as well) and concentrate them all in CA - now they have a mix of ERC'90's and Soviet MBT's and make a more effective force
I think the key may come down to how they fought the 40th - I can see the Soviets in Texas taking on the 49th in an open fight - after all they had helicopter gunships and for all we know the 49th didnt - but in CA maybe they relied on ambush tactics to get close enough to make their weapons able to effectively engage the US MBT's - losing a lot of vehicles in the process but still stopping the US in its drive south
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