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Fibre metal laminates (FMLs) aremulti-layered materials with various stacking arrangements of aluminium alloy layersand fibre-reinforced composite layers. FMLs, such as GLARE (glass fibre/aluminium)and CALL (carbon fibre/aluminium), have attracted the interest of a number ofaircraft manufacturers. For example, GLARE is being used in the manufacture ofthe upper fuselage of the A380, an aircraft that is capable of carrying up to700 passengers. However, with such composite materials being more widely used,an on-going concern is the effect of foreign object impacts on their mechanicalproperties. An example of impact is that of an aircraft underbelly or wingimpacted at high velocity during take-off and landing by stones and other smalldebris from the runway. Another example of impact is during the manufacturingprocess or during maintenance, where tools can be dropped on structures at lowvelocity. In this case, even though the velocity may be low the drop mass ofthe tool is frequently large. In this paper, 3-D nonlinear finite elementmodels are presented to simulate perforation failure of FMLs subjected toprojectile impact. Here, the modified Hashin’s 3D failure criteria aredeveloped with consideration of rate-dependent effect. In addition,rate-dependent damage evolution laws are implemented in the modelling. Also, therate-dependent plastic damage and Johnson-Cook failure criteria are used tosimulate on-set damage and subsequent damage evolution of aluminium subjectedto impact. Reasonably good correlation is obtained between the simulated andexperimental results, in terms of load-displacement relationships and thecorresponding deformation and failure modes. Contribution of the aluminium inFMLs on impact resistance and perforation energy was also assessed anddiscussed.