Psst: Wanna Buy A Cruise Missile, Cheap?

In what appears to be some backyard tinkering gone mad, a New Zealander who claims to have designed a workable cruise missile for $5,000 (about $3,500 U.S.) is now offering his services to the highest bidder. Bruce Simpson attracted a lot of attention last year when he said he could build a jet-powered, stealthy cruise missile that could carry a 22-pound payload 100 miles to within 100 meters of its target. What’s more, it would be built out of off-the-shelf items and “using techniques that can be used in any suburban garage without raising suspicion or curiosity of neighbors,” according to his Web site. Well, his tinkering caught the attention of the New Zealand government, who put him out of the cruise missile business and forced him underground. The embittered Simpson, who claims to have lost his home and livelihood to the government’s actions, is offering to design a cruise missile, unmanned aerial vehicle or rocket-propelled vehicle for anyone outside New Zealand who’s willing to pay him a decent wage and give him and his family a place to live. “Whether you’re a very small nation looking to extend its military capabilities while perhaps creating a highly profitable export industry, or an entrepreneur seeking to enter the massive market low-cost UAVs, RPVs and other pilotless vehicles, or whether you just want a single missile to mount on your SUV as a roof ornament — I’m your man,” he writes. However, he claims he won’t knowingly build the hardware for anyone planning a terrorist act.