The problem of minimizing the dynamic response of laminated truncated conical shells with minimum control force is presented. The total elastic energy of the shell is taken as a measure of the dynamic response which is formulated based on shear deformation theory. The ply thickness and fiber orientation angles are taken as optimization design variables. The Liapunov–Bellman theory is used to obtain explicit solutions for controlled deflections and closed loop control force. The present design and control optimization procedure is examined numerically for angle-ply, three-layer symmetric truncated conical shells with supported–supported, clamped–supported and clamped–clamped edges. The influences of the edges conditions, geometric and material parameters on the minimization process are illustrated.