Politics and payback aside, is anyone else upset by the fact that the
Navy chose a less-safe, lower-performance helicopter to carry the
President of the United States?

For starters, the S-92 and EH101 were designed a generation apart as
far as flaw-tolerant design and birdstrike and turbine burst
protection. For the next 30 years or so, the US101 will still seat the
President above aircraft fuel cells. Also like an earlier generation
of helicopters, the EH101 structure does meet current crashworthiness
requirements for forward impact strength. Strengthening the core
EH/US101 up to the latest standards will put cost and risk into the VXX
program, just what the Navy said it was trying to avoid.

Every part of a US Presidential helicopter is handled with special care
in a high-security environment. After a half-century of Presidential
service, a proven VH secure manufacturing and support infrastructure
with hundreds of skilled US citizens carefully cleared for access to
Presidential aircraft will be phased out. The new US101 secure
organization will start from scratch to include foreign workers in
facilities offshore. More risk and cost.

Hopefully, the news media keeps an eye on this deal.