How I Built A Cheap Cruise Missile

from the surprisingly-simple dept

Back in June we wrote about a guy in New Zealand who was building his own, fully functional cruise missile for under $5,000 to demonstrate just how simple it was - and why authorities need to pay more attention to such DIY risks. Now, Newsweek is running an interview with the guy, where he talks about how easy it has been to build (easier than he even expected) and how authorities have pretty much ignored him completely - despite repeated efforts to contact them. He expects to be done by the end of next month, at which point he wants to (a) drive it around Auckland to prove it's easy to transport and (b) fire it off to prove it works. Then... he's going to build another one.
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  1. identicon
    rax, 21 Aug 2003 @ 9:52am

    Cheap cruise missile

    If there has ever been a case of "been there, done that" this is it. The German V-1 was essentially a cruise missile, granted the guidance system was pretty poor. What makes the current generation of Tomahawk so expensive are guidance systems that make it deadly accurate. The Tomahawk missile provides a long-range, highly survivable, unmanned land attack weapon system capable of pinpoint accuracy. GlobalSecurity.Org The problem this guy will have is hitting his target. Granted, if you shoot this thing at a large enough building you'll probably get a hit. However, without pinpoint accuracy the damage inflicted by this weapon will minimal. We are not talking about a 1000lb military grade warhead here. That being said, this has always been a problem and will continue to be a threat. However, I still think it's infinitly easier to gain access to the target and deliever your package to structurally critical area (Oklahoma City) than to take a chance on launching your "military version of 'Junkyard Wars'" and hoping that it hits what your aiming for. The guy has an interesting site none the less: http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/

    link to this | view in thread ]


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