It's Crazy Al's missile sale.

China Lake can put you behind the launch toggle of a Spike--a 2-ft.-long, high-speed, guided missile capable of hitting relatively fast-moving targets--for an estimated $5,000. No word yet on available colors or cash-for-clunkers options.

The Spike program is a poster child for cheap innovative weaponry. The missile comes with a spectrum of operational advantages--all associated with survival--for those who fire it. For one thing, there is no position-revealing backblast like that from a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) or a surface-to-air Stinger. It leaves the launcher at about 100 mph. instead of Mach 1.9 so there is no loud bang. The guidance system cuts the need for high muzzle velocity, and when a target appears the weapon can be ready for firing in 1 sec. It can also be attached to the Hellfire launcher of a UAV.

"At short range, Spike is essentially an inertially stabilized RPG," says Steve Felix, Spike missile project manager in the Weapons and Energetics Dept. "Or you can have an explosively formed projectile and punch into a truck-sized target, such as an armored personnel carrier, at 200 meters. If I get surprised, and the target is more than 30 ft. away, I can pull the weapon up and shoot it like a shotgun. It is always a weapon; I never have deadweight in my hands. I could arm your lawn chair if you put a 12-volt battery on it."

The missile has no gimbal of any kind. It is basically a camcorder bolted to the front of a rocket motor. The motor has a 1.5-sec. burn to about Mach 0.85 so it silently glides in on the targets up to a range of 3.2 km. (2 mi.), at about 600 mph.

The Weapon Div.'s Spike missile project has produced a 2.25-in.-dia., 5.5-lb. guided weapon that early this year chalked up seven out of nine successful test shots including a waterline hit on a speeding small boat that, even without explosives, punched a hole through the vessel. The missile can hit an object at 60 mph. cross-velocity and much faster if it is coming directly toward or away from the gunner. That was the project's first goal. The second is to meet a target production price of $5,000-6,000 per missile.

"We want to make it so cheap you never fix one," Felix says. "You conduct a bit test and if there's a problem, you toss it away because it would cost more to ship it back for repairs."

The first 20 prototype rounds cost less than $50,000 each. But the use of commercial technology is expected to slash that. The electro-optical sensor, for example, comes in at about $100.

"If shortwave infrared chips get cheaper, we're happy to use them," Felix says. "We designed the Spike to accept them. If I take off eight screws, there's one connector. If you want a new focal plane, [just] plug it in and reprogram the interface chip."

Spike is modular--seeker/sensor, guidance system electronics, batteries, inertial measurement units and servo--all these components can be quickly replaced and made compatible by reprogramming an interface chip. The motor is fired with a laser; no wires go into it so there is no chance of getting motor ignition from static, and the laser and fiber are off-the-shelf telephone components.