Primary goals

After $1b spent, Pentagon shifts strategy on bioterror threats - The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is scaling back one of its largest efforts to develop treatments for troops and civilians infected in a germ warfare attack after a $1 billion, five-year program fell short of its primary goal.

The primary goal in this case was to find a, you know, defense. Against said bioterror threats. So "falling short of its primary goal" is, pretty much, just plain failing, with a billion dollars worth of nice tacked on.