Possible reasons.

Phony books. When a project tanks, they throw in the sink too.

Black ops. Some of the star war testing was done in a building nearby and they blew millions on it, we never got a star war in orbit either.

Knowing government contracts, I know that many contractors are in it for money. They are the ones who took the American public in some cases. I doubt the Air Force is qualified to oversee such a project. They are bound to get stuck. A big company would have simply bought out a smaller company and paid themselves to do the work. When finished, they'd part out the left overs.

Cutting their losses after only one bil? Actually, that's refreshing.

The up and coming consultant scam is all the cyberwar stuff, AKA full employment for security consultants.

I'm not saying computer security isn't important. I am saying the predictions of a coming cyber-Armageddon are likely--er--somewhat overblown.

At one time the entire military system was a collection of thousands of odd things. The thinking was that if someone were to try to take over the material then they'd have to learn each system. The security would be in massive learning curve. Second to that was the idea of hacking. One would have to hack hundreds of odd systems to gain any advantage. Putting all their eggs into one basket may be a poor choice.