How about more choppers-less humping.
Lets bring back the cavalry! add camels now that we are in the middle east and mules too! Why not— they can be cheap and run on hay not gas.
The higher a chopper flies the less load it can carry.
It is also very hard to hide a chopper. They can be seen from long distances. They tend to make a lot of noise. It is hard to find a rock big enough to hide one behind when you are taking fire.
They aren’t really talking about using thousands of mules for everyday cargo handling but for long foot patrols, for long recon missions where the mission precludes mechanized load carrying and resupply by air would be impractical or jeopardize the mission.