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VXXOn December 18 2003, the US Department of Defense (DoD) issued a Request for Proposals to replace eleven VH-3D Sea King and eight VH-60N Whitehawk in the Marine One role. The US101 variant of the european EH101 was selected on January 2005 and awarded a $1.7 billion contract. Based on the current contract schedule, the first VH-71A ready to transport the President is expected to be available in 2009, with the entire fleet of 23 helicopters delivered to the US Marine Corps squadron HMX-1 by late 2014. For the first time in half a century, a US presidential helicopter will be built by a company that's not Sikorsky ( VH-34, VH-3, VH-60 and VH-53 ) However, on June 2009, the US Navy formally terminated the VH-71 contract. The move comes nearly two months after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates decided to cancel the programme after its budget more than doubled to $13 billion and it was delayed by several years. The Department of Defense plans to reinvest about $1.2 billion to update the aging Sikorsky VH-3D and VH-60N helicopters in the existing presidential helicopter fleet.
80 Percent of the US101 Will be made in the USA and the rest will be made in England and Italy.
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