This paper reports an experimental and numerical analysis of the impact behavior of composite sandwich panels. An innovative sandwich construction with an ATH/Epoxy core (i.e. epoxy resin filled with alumina tri-hydrate (ATH) particles) and non-crimp glass fabric fibre-reinforced epoxy face-sheets was subjected to impact loads. Explicit nonlinear finite elements model was developed to predict the damage characteristics in both the face-sheets and core. The obtained numerical results were compared with the test data to assess the effectiveness of the proposed model. A good correlation with respect to the contact force and energy-time relationships, permanent deformation, and impact-induced damage was achieved. The contribution of each component of the sandwich structure to its energy absorption capabilities was also evaluated. It was found, for an impact energy of 21J, that the energy dissipated in the ATH/Epoxy core is almost two times more than that dissipated in the face-sheets. The important role of the core material for reducing face-sheet damage was identified.