Not very hard at all says Bruce Simpson. “During the past decade, huge strides have been made in commercializing much of the technology on which the cruise missile is based and it is my firm belief that building a low-cost, autonomous, self-guided, air-breathing missile with a significant payload capability is now well within the reach of almost any person or small group of persons with the necessary knowledge and skills…. The total component costs for an low cost cruise missile (LCCM) (less payload) could be as little as $6,000 for the smallest, simplest version, with a larger, more sophisticated design still requiring little more than $10,000 worth of parts and materials… Personally, I’m more than a little worried at the prospect of terror groups or others constructing and launching their own LCCMs…Unfortunately there’s probably very little that can be done to reduce the magnitude of this potential threat…In the 21st century, technology plays no favorites — it is the slave of anyone who chooses to master it.”
Mr. Simpson should know. His other hobby besides his website (that’s him about halfay down the page) is developing simple, low cost jet engines that could easily be at the heart of a surprisingly advanced cruise missile. Unlike the complex and expensive turbofans used in virtually all existing jets, his design is a much simpler pulsejet type used in the original cruise missile, the German V-1 that during World War II blitzed London. Forget about American export controls controlling access to his pulsejet accomplishments; he’s from New Zealand, and besides, his brainchild the XJet is just one click away on the Internet. So are all of the other essential low-cost cruise missile components like precision GPS location/guidance systems that can easily be hacked and modified. The aerodynamics of the wings and missile body would be a fairly simple challenge, too.
In a very real sense, dry-run simulated cruise missile attacks by amateurs have already occurred on both Russia and America. On May 28, 1987, Mathias Rust flew a borrowed Cessna from
Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow – and landed in Red Square. A similar even occurred in September 1994 when Frank Eugene Corder stole a single-engine Cessna from an airfield north of Baltimore and crashed it into the White House. Even intercontinental range for such exploits was demonstrated in 1998 when the 29 pound unmanned “Laima” aircraft was flown from Scotland to Canada.
Meanwhile, digging for the multi-billion dollar ballistic missile interceptor silos has begun in the city of Delta Junction, “Home of Missile Defense in Alaska”. Feel safer yet?