How the AZIRT project began:

The United States Border Patrol (USBP) requested the assistance of the National Guard Bureau to provide engineering support to improve and enhance their ability to secure the international boundary between the Federal Republic of Mexico and the United States of America.
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Army National Guard engineering units, and the AZ IRT Team, provided engineering support to the USBP, by constructing 2,500 feet of bollard fencing, steel panel fencing and construct and improving existing roadways paralleling the fence.

Arizona Innovative Readiness Training project was created as Task Force Douglas
1 December 2000 as part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense-Reserve Affairs (OASD-RA) Civil-Military Innovative Readiness Training (C-MIRT) federal team. In 2004 the project was renamed to Arizona IRT Task Force Diamondback after the addition of Project Yuma near the border town of San Luis in southwestern Arizona.

National Guard Bureau's Exercise branch (NGB-ARO-Y) monitors TFD’s performance, fulfilling NGB's charter to provide real-world training to sustain military units’ wartime mission preparedness while providing service to the nation.