The Obama Administration is considering cancelling a multibillion-pound contract to replace the presidential helicopter known as Marine One – awarded with great fanfare to a venture involving the British company Westland.

The six-year-old contract to provide the White House with a new fleet of 28 helicopters was awarded to a contractor that uses the British-Italian company AgustaWestland to make the aircraft, after Tony Blair personally lobbied President Bush on its behalf. It gave the company, whose British arm is based in Somerset, bragging rights to the most prestigious helicopter order in the world, after the US manufacturer that has always made Marine One was spurned.

The Pentagon has now ordered a freeze of the project so that Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, can review whether its soaring costs are reasonable, or whether a cheaper alternative can be found.

The contract for the new VH71 helicopter, a 64-ft aircraft that is meant to be able to deflect missiles and resist the electro-magnetic effects of a nuclear blast, was originally priced at $6.1 billion, but has now almost doubled in price, to $11.2 billion. Under US law, Mr Gates has to review it, because the cost overrun has exceeded a statuary limit placed on defence contracts.

His spokesman, Geoff Morrell, told The Times: “Any and all programmes that are having execution problems, such as the VH71, are subject to review as part of the budget process and, if necessary, Secretary Gates is prepared to make hard choices to ensure the budget is militarily responsible and fiscally credible.”

The economic crisis has added a politically charged dimension to the decision. Mr Obama has called for a new era of responsibility and thrift, but each helicopter in the planned fleet will cost nearly the same as the $410 million paid in 1990 for Air Force One, the presidential jet.

In July, during the presidential campaign, Mr Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain, decried the cost of the project and pledged to review it, but stopped short of saying they would scrap it. Mr McCain called it a scandal. Mr Obama said he would “take a close look at it,” adding: “In principle, it is a lot of money, even in Washington.”

AgustaWestland has complained in the past that so many modifications and additions have been demanded by the Pentagon and the Secret Service along the way that the cost of the project inevitably increased. The Pentagon has denied this.

A spokesman for the company said the helicopter was the only one that could meet the strict requirement’s for Mr Obama safety. “It is the only one that meets the requirements dictated by the September 11 issue,” he said.

Much of the current fleet of 19 presidential helicopters were built in the 1970s. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the Bush Administration decided that a new, faster and safer helicopter was needed.

In 2005 the contract was awarded to the US company Lockheed Martin, rather than the Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft, which has built the Marine One helicopter since it was first introduced by President Dwight Eisenhower.

Lockheed Martin did not have a suitable helicopter and rather than develop a new design it offered the AgustaWestland AW101, which has seen service with the British military in locations including Bosnia and Iraq.

The contract stipulated that the first five be built quickly. Four have been manufactured in Westland’s Yeovil base. They were to be followed by 23 more, built in Texas by Bell and then fitted with sophisticated technology by Lockheed Martin.

If AgustaWestland loses the contract it will not have a significant impact on British jobs in the firm, but it would be a blow to its reputation. Being asked to make the new presidential helicopter was a valuable marketing tool, and future lucrative orders by international companies could be hit.

Politicians in Connecticut have written to the Pentagon demanding that the tender process be reopened, and Sikorsky considered again.

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