Abstract: The penetration tests of two kinds of functionally graded plates (FGM) were performed by using a high speed air-gun system. The plates consist of layered structures with two stack sequences prepared by the vacuum hot-pressure diffusion processing. Each layer is made from aluminum matrix composites reinforced by different volume fraction SiC particles (MMCs) by the vacuum hot-pressure sintering method. The numerical simulations of penetration process were carried out by LS-DYNA code. The numerical simulations were also performed to explore the optimal distribution of certain average SiC_P fraction. The test results show that the anti-penetration ability of the functionally graded plate is much better than that of the pure aluminum plate. The difference of anti-penetration ability between the two tested functionally graded plates is not apparent. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with experimental results. From the simulation results, the layered plates have superior anti-penetration ability to the that of homogeneity plate of MMCs. And the anti-penetration of layered plates with the same thickness and the same areal density can be approximately regarded as not sensitive to the particle distribution.