The Department of Defense is scrapping its effort to redesign the lethal tip on the nation’s ballistic missile interceptors, canceling a program that could have been worth more than $5 billion to Boeing (NYSE: BA) and its partners.

The Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) was abandoned effective Aug. 22 due to technical design problems, according to a Pentagon statement. Michael Griffin, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and engineering, called ending the program “the responsible thing to do.” Griffin had halted work on the RKV in May pending a review and apparently did not like the conclusions that came out of that review.

“After exercising due diligence, we decided the path we’re going down wouldn’t be fruitful, so we’re not going down that path anymore,” Griffin said. “This decision supports our efforts to gain full value from every future taxpayer dollar spent on defense”.

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