Primarily they"ll be mostly used for counter-insurgency.
Wisdom - and the reverse - about counter-insurgency doesn't belong here, but the last thing one should do in counter-insurgency is to escalate the technology. Effective counter-insurgency is utterly useless without the counter-insurgency force being down-to-earth, used to operating off-road
as a practice, not as a deviation, well-protected against small arms fire, equipped with minimalist weaponry never exceeding light machine guns, never extending to mortars or anything of a larger calibre, and using lorries, rail transport, rotary-wing transport and STOL aircraft only for superior off-theatre logistics, as force-multipliers. In other words, a force that operates more or less like a guerrilla force operates, including marching in small groups and concentrating at very high speed for an action, dispersing at equal high-speed after actions. These are best positioned as forces that use speed and movement as their main methods of prevailing over the enemy, and carry limited amounts of ammunitions, to avoid weighing themselves down.
For those who think that mop-up and consolidation is part of the job-description, this should be left to separate forces flown in to the scene of action even as it continues, able to move in and consolidate while the original strike-force moves out, either into ambush positions or into a change of targetted activity. Mobile strike forces and follow-up forces should not be combined but should be encouraged to be separate and to act in close coordination. Follow-up forces, in contrast to strike forces, should be more heavily armed, in terms of carrying greater quantities of ammunition, and larger percentages of machine guns, again with ammunition, as their role should be to move at great strength over small distances, with complete confidence that they cannot be overcome.
The third echelon should be specialised health-care, education, law and order, judicial and social engineering troops, dedicated to delivering those services that are assigned to the state to deliver, and that get dislocated during hostilities to the detriment of the state position that it is responsible for delivering these services and therefore responsible for collection of taxes and providing an administrative framework.
Between these three echelons, and a strong political steering committee, preferably a bi-partisan committee, there should be no scope for failure, provided that adequate time is allowed for these protracted operations in the teeth of virulent propaganda and attacks on the government's soft targets and personnel.
You will notice that attack helicopters are prominent by their absence.
