Dr. Ray “Krypto” O’Mara is the Chief Architect for Capability Transition in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Mission Capabilities within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)). In this position he is responsible for the establishment of the Advanced Analysis and Capability Development (A2CD) project, which encompasses the transition and realignment of key elements of the Assault Breaker II program from DARPA to OSD (R&E).
Prior to this position, Dr. O’Mara was the founder and President of Pointblank Strategic Analysis and he supported the Assault Breaker II program at DARPA, helping to establish the Secure Advanced Framework for Simulation and Modeling (SAFE-SiM) program and several advanced concept development efforts focused on non-kinetic effects. Before arriving at DARPA, he spent time as the Director of Strategic Programs at Humatics, a high-tech micro-location hardware startup company located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and in research and development focused on autonomy and unmanned flight at Aurora Flight Sciences.
Dr. O’Mara retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel after 29 years of Active Duty, during which he served in several operational, operational test, and weapons evaluation positions while flying the F-15C. He participated in Operations SOUTHERN WATCH, PROVIDE COMFORT, NORTHERN WATCH, NOBLE EAGLE, and ENDURING FREEDOM. He spent time as a program element monitor (PEM) in the Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition) Directorate of Special Programs (SAF/AQL) and commanded the 83d Fighter Weapons Squadron where he ran Combat Archer, the USAF’s Air-to-Air Weapons System Evaluation Program. Dr. O’Mara also served as the Chair of the Strategy Department at the Air War College where he also ran the Grand Strategy Program. He is a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, the Air War College, and the School of Advanced Airpower Studies. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Technology, Policy and Engineering Systems and is the author of Rise of the War Machines: The Birth of Precision Bombing in World War II (2022) published by the Naval Institute Press.
