NZDF's new long-range rifle so powerful it can cause brain injury - on the operator. Video / NZDF

Corporal Douglas Grant approached life the way he wrote he rode his motorcycle - "above the speed limit", his commanding officer told his funeral service in the Linton Camp gymnasium near Palmerston North this morning.

Prime Minister John Key is not ruling out future SAS deployments to Afghanistan after the death of a Kiwi soldier.

The family of Corporal Doug "Dougie" Grant, named this morning as the New Zealand SAS soldier killed in a Taleban attack in Afghanistan on Friday, had achieved his boyhood dream to serve with the elite unit.

Prime Minister John Key says he accepts full responsibility for the deployment of New Zealand troops in Afghanistan but he sees no need to end their service early after the death of an SAS soldier yesterday.

A New Zealand SAS soldier died on the way to hospital in Afghanistan last night after being shot in the chest after a group of suicide attackers stormed a British compound in the capital, Kabul.