SASLess
Not in any way denigrating the Hawk and it's variants. I have time on 2 of them myself, though not the utility versions. Fantastic bit of kit, we should have bought them years age for the RN and RAF.
Re the "Yes the Hawk can carry 26-29 fully equipped", maybe, I'll take your word for it, but the Hawk variant in this case is likely to be more PaveHawk than Blackhawk. Go look up the difference in empty weight. No 25 POB in that beastie.
On further investigation, I call bulls1t on your 26-29 fully equipped in Iraq/Afghan
No way no day, unless you mean SF running around kit only, and even then......
That is the sort of thing done to get out of a nasty situation, not on the way to the action, except for crazy ops like the Seaking into Argentina 1000s of Lbs over max weight.
"Some of ya'll need to put down the Checklists, SOP's, CFS mentality....and accept reality exists and life begins outside the box you build for yourselves with all the artificial constraints you find so comfortable. "
Since you have no idea of the background of various on here, that is a bit of a strong statement, don't you think?
Silly point anyway, because you don't for a minute think that they only sent 2 helicopters for 40+ troops whilst expecting to pick up extras, do you?