A Diy Cruise Missile: Yours for £3,000

Don't worry about Russia's bioweapon laboratories and North Korea's nuclear programme: the greatest threat to world security is sitting in a shed in New Zealand.

A model aircraft enthusiast from North Island claims to have made a cruise missile in his shed for £3,000, and plans to publish instructions for making it online.

Bruce Simpson bought his missile's GPS positioning system on eBay for £75 and its flight control system mostly from online hobby stores for less than £300.

He says it will have a range of 100km, travel at up to 800km per hour and be able to carry a 10kg warhead to within 100m of its target.

Using a pulse jet engine similar to those used by German V1 rockets during the second world war, he believes the missile could be carried around in a pick-up truck and launched from a roadside.

"Obviously the goal of this website it not to provide terrorists or other nefarious types with the plans for a working cruise missile, but to prove that nations need to be prepared for this type of sophisticated attack," his site says.

Mr Simpson has previously made a jet-powered go-kart and used jet engines to warm his tea.

His website, entitled "A DIY cruise missile - watch me build one for under NZ$5,000", has reported receiving 250,000 hits in two weeks.

Doug Richardson, editor of Jane's Missiles and Rockets, said that the missile would not be a serious security risk.

"You can make a basic cruise missile quite cheaply, but it's creating something that could evade defensive systems that's more difficult," he added.

A police spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Mr Simpson would be investigated, but said: "It's not something we recommend people to try at home."