In February 2009, President Barack Obama asked Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about placing the project on hold or canceling it because of its high cost: over $13 billion for the planned 28 helicopters.

On 23 July 2002, Lockheed Martin and AgustaWestland announced that they had signed a 10-year agreement to jointly market, manufacture and support a medium-lift helicopter, an AW101 derivative, in the United States.

[2][3] In early 2002, the Lockheed-AgustaWestland partnership sought out other firms to participate in the proposed local manufacturing effort for the US101; in particular, the team pursued Bell Helicopters, which was at that time part of another EH101 consortium, offering the type in Canada.

[5][6] By August 2002, there were reports in the media, of various US aircraft manufacturers, including Bell, Boeing and Kaman Aerospace, that were holding discussions with the consortium and may potentially be selected as a subcontractor to perform the domestic assembly of the US101.

The company would also manufacture other components, including the gearbox, at its facility in Cascina Costa, Italy; this represents a work share of 36 per cent.

[14][15] In February 2002, the US Marine Corps commenced a study to identify potential replacement rotorcraft for the aging Sikorsky VH-3D presidential transport helicopters.

[17][18] Two companies, AgustaWestland and Sikorsky Aircraft responded to the VXX RFP; additionally, that had been interest in a potential Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey-based bid, however the rotorcraft was deemed to be non-transportable by military airlift and thus unsuitable to qualify.

[19][20] Sikorsky had proposed the VH-92, a variant of the H-92 Superhawk, in partnership with FlightSafety International, L-3 Communications, Northrop Grumman, Rockwell Collins, Vought Aircraft Industries, and GE-Aviation.

[27] John Young, the USN's assistant secretary for acquisition technology and logistics, stated of the selection: "The Lockheed team probably started with a helicopter that needed less.

[34] During dialogue over the CSAR-X (in which the EH101 was LMSI's offering), the Air Force Source Selection Authority (SSA) stated the program's performance had been "unsatisfactory".

The SSA stated that LMSI had "show[n] that it could not reliably meet important schedule requirements and had difficulty in systems engineering flow-downs to their subcontractors.

[36] In December 2007, DoD officials met with the White House Military Office to discuss the program's future; the Pentagon had apparently wanted to terminate the VH-71 due to setbacks, budget issues, and design problems.

[48] The Congressional Research Service (CRS) estimated that shutting down VH-71 production, upgrading the existing fleet, and later implementing a successor program would cost $14–$21 billion.

[52] Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) have been outspoken critics of the Pentagon in the matter—Bartlett recently claiming that "they had this conversation outside the partnership and we regret that.

"[52] Loren Thompson, an analyst for the Lexington Institute, stated "I do not believe that the story of VH-71 is over... Secretary Gates has not made a convincing case for terminating the program, and there is no alternative helicopter that can satisfy range and payload requirements while still landing on the White House lawn.

[58][59] In June 2011, the nine VH-71s were purchased for $164 million by Canada for use as spare parts for its fleet of AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant search and rescue helicopter, which is also based upon the AW101.

[67] The US101 also competed for two further USAF contracts, the 141-aircraft Combat Search and Rescue Replacement (CSAR-X) project (originally won by the Boeing HH-47 on 10 November 2006, but now subject to a second procurement competition), and the 70-aircraft Common Vertical Lift Support Program (CVLSP).