Current investigation deals with the dynamic response of composite conical panels which are subjected to mechanical shock. It is assumed that composite laminated conical panel is reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs) where the amount of GPLs may be different in the layers. As a result, a piecewise functionally graded media may be achieved. To model the displacement field in the conical panel, Donnell type of kinematic assumptions and also first order shear deformation shell theory are used. To estimate the elasticity modulus of the composite media, Halpin-Tsai rule is applied where the size of Reinforcements is also included. However for Poisson's ratio and mass density the simple rule of mixtures is adopted. The governing motion equations of the panel are established by means of the Ritz method where the shape functions are constructed via the Chebyshev polynomials. Also to trace the displacement field in time domain, Newmark time marching scheme is used. Results of this study are first compared with the available data in the open literature and then novel numerical results are provided to explore the effects of shell geometry, number of layers, GPL weight fraction and GPL patterns. It is shown that deflections of the shell may be alleviated through introduction of GPLs. 2023 Elsevier Ltd