The first test VH-71A, Test Vehicle #2 (TV2), made its initial flight on July 3, 2007 at AgustaWestland's facility in Yeovil, UK.Lockheed Martin is already using an EH101, designated TV-1, for initial testing in the USA, including landings on the White House lawn.The VH-71 "Kestrel" is a variant of the AgustaWestland EH101 which is being developed to replace the United States Marine Corps' Marine One Presidential transport fleet. The aircraft is being produced by the Lockheed Martin-led "US101 Team," which comprises Lockheed Martin Systems Integration - Owego, AgustaWestland, and Bell Helicopter.On 23 July 2002 Lockheed Martin and AgustaWestland signed a ten-year agreement to "jointly market, produce and support a medium-lift helicopter in the United States."This helicopter was the US101, a derivative of the EH101. The companies envisaged marketing the aircraft in three roles; US Air Force combat search and rescue, US Coast Guard search and rescue, and US Marine Corps executive transport.
On May 15, 2003 AgustaWestland signed an agreement with Bell Helicopter to undertake final assembly of the US101 in the United States.AgustaWestland will produce the main rotor blades and main fuselage sections at its Yeovil, England facility. The company will produce other components, including the gearbox, at its Cascina Costa, Italy facility. This represents a work share of 36%. The remaining 64% work share is split between Lockheed Martin (31%) and Bell Helicopter (27%) and others (6%).The U.S. Department of Defense issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) on December 18, 2003 for the supply of 23 helicopters to replace the 11 VH-3Ds and 8 VH-60Ns of USMC HMX-1 squadron. This requirement was given the designation VXX (V being the prefix for VIP aircraft and XX representing the then unspecified numerical part of the designation).

Both AgustaWestland and Sikorsky responded to the RFP. Sikorsky 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.

On January 28, 2005 the Department of Defense announced that it had selected the US101 for the VXX programme. The US101 team was awarded a $1.7 billion contract for the VXX system development and demonstration (SDD) phase.The price of the development later rose by 40% to $2.4 billion.The full cost of the project is estimated at $6.1Bn, although some analysts expect the cost to rise above $7Bn, making this the most expensive helicopter ever, with a unit cost of $270m.In addition to rising costs, delays and engineering issues have plagued the VH-71's development.During the ongoing CSAR-X contract controversy (in which the EH101 is LMSI's offering), the Air Force source selection authority has, on several occasions, referred to Lockheed's VH-71 program as having "unsatisfactory performance". These concerns with the VH-71 have caused the Air Force to cast doubts on LMSI's ability to supply helicopters for a potential CSAR program award; in March 2007 the initial GAO report which upheld Sikorsky and Lockheed's contract award protests versus Boeing's HH-47 mentioned "that LMSI had received a little confidence rating for past performance due to unsatisfactory performance under its current contract for the VH-71 Presidential helicopter, which was evaluated as the most highly relevant to this procurement. According to the SSA, LMSI had "show[n under that contract] that it could not reliably meet important schedule requirements and had difficulty in systems engineering flow-downs to their subcontractors."# Crew: 4
# Capacity: * 30 seated troops or * 45 standing troops or * 16 stretchers with medics

# Length: 74 ft 10 in (22.81 m)
# Rotor diameter: 61 ft 0 in (18.59 m)
# Height: 21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
# Disc area: 2992 ft² (271 m²)
# Empty weight: 23,150 lb (10,500 kg)
# Useful load: 5,443 kg (12,000 lb)
# Max takeoff weight: 34,320 lb (15,600 kg)
# Powerplant: 3× General Electric CT7-8E turboshafts, 2,520 shp * Never exceed speed: 167 knots (192 mph, 309 km/h) * Range: 750 nm (863 mi, 1389 km) * Service ceiling: 15,000ft (4575 m) * Rate of climb: 2000 ft/min (10.2 m/s) * Disc loading: 53.8 kg/m² (11.01 lb/ft²) * Power/mass: 0.174 shp/lb (284.9 W/kg) (less)