Mr. Daniel Carreño

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division

Executive Director

Daniel Carreño is the Executive Director for Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), where he directs a civilian workforce of more than 6,000 individuals. With two primary sites in southern Calif., NAWCWD is responsible for research, development, acquisition support, test, evaluation, and in-service engineering for weapon systems.

Mr. Carreño entered the Senior Executive Service (SES) in March 2016 and has more than 30 years of naval aviation experience across multiple phases of weapons system life-cycle support. He began his career at China Lake in the field of energetics and provided propulsion analysis for multiple weapons systems, including the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). He served as the NAWCWD technical representative for the AMRAAM Propulsion Enhancement Program at the Air-to-Air Joint Systems Program Office at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and returned to NAWCWD as the branch head of the Propulsion Performance Office. He was later the AMRAAM Projects Integrated Product Team lead and director for the Joint Standoff Weapon and Standoff Land Attack Missile —Expanded Response/Harpoon Technical Project Offices at NAWCWD.

Additional assignments include a Naval Scientist Training and Exchange Program rotation on the staff of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at Fallon, Nev. After serving 2 years as the NAWCWD Range Safety Officer, Mr. Carreño was assigned in January 2013 to the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Systems Engineering Department to lead the Synthetic Guidance Demonstration Program, resulting in the successful demonstration of Tomahawk anti-ship capability. In August 2015, he became the associate director for weapons for the Weapons and Energetics Department and was selected for an SES appointment as the department lead in March 2016. In March 2020, Mr. Carreño was appointed the Product Director for Targeting and Kinetic Effects. In May 2020, he was selected as the Research and Development Group Director and served there until March 2021, when he was selected for his current position.

Mr. Carreño earned a bachelor’s of science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Tennessee. He has been a member of the Acquisition Professional Community since 2001. Mr. Carreño received the NAWCWD Michelson Laboratory Award in 2009, the NAWCWD Dr. L.T.E. Thompson Award in 2015, and the NAVAIR Commander’s Award in 2015.