Scott M. O’Neil

Scott O’Neil is the proprietor of S. M. O’Neil Consulting and Founder of Small Missile Company. Recently, we was appointed to the Congressional Commission on the Future Navy. He retired from U.S. Government civilian service January 2016 after working for the Navy for 43 years. Immediately following his retire he worked a year for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition developing policy for rapid prototyping and rapid acquisition. He served as a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee, a civilian scientific advisory group dedicated to providing senior Navy leadership objective analyses in the areas of science, research and development. For the decade prior to his retirement Mr. O’Neil served as Executive Director and Director for Research and Engineering of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) at China Lake, California. The Center is the Navy’s premier weapons laboratory and is responsible for research, development, acquisition support, test, evaluation, and in-service engineering for naval weapon systems. As Executive Director, Mr. O’Neil directed a highly technical civilian workforce of about 5200 employees.

Mr. O’Neil was appointed to the Senior Executive Service (SES) in November 1998 as the head of NAWCWD Weapons and Targets Department. In April 2002 he was assigned Director of Atlantic Ranges and Facilities of Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, at Patuxent River, Maryland. From May to December 2010, he was acting Deputy Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, an Echelon II command.

Prior to moving into general management, Mr. O’Neil worked for 15 year in the solid propulsion field and thrust vector control systems. He was program manager for Vertical Launch ASROC (VLA), an in-house government advanced development program. VLA was made Fleet operational 1993. He was Deputy Program Manager for Tomahawk Cruise Missile rocket motors and he led the development of the MK 111 Improved Rocket Motor and the WDU36 lightweight warhead system for Tomahawk. From 1987-91 he led China Lake’s Tomahawk technical team.

Mr. O’Neil received his Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering (BME) from Seattle University in 1972 and received his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1977. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) selected Mr. O’Neil as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and he received his Master’s in Management from MIT in 1992. He is the recipient of numerous Command awards for engineering and management excellence. As an executive, Mr. O’Neil received the Meritorious SES Presidential Rank Award from President Bush in 2007. He has received the Naval Meritorious, Superior, and Distinguished Civilian Service awards. In 2017 the Precision Strike Association recognized Mr. O’Neil for his contributions to naval precision strike weaponry by presenting him their Richard H. Johnson Technical Achievement Award. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi engineering honors society and is a registered Professional Mechanical Engineer in California.