Abstract: Strain invariant failure theory (SIFT) is a new type of strength theory for composites based on physical failure mode, which is applied to the failure analysis of composite structures widely. In order to improve the accuracy of theoretical analysis, SIFT was extended to be used to analyze the static loading compressive progressive failure mechanism and strength for carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite laminate open-hole structures firstly. The implementation methods of developed SIFT include two parts of material strength characterization and structure strength prediction. The structure strength prediction based on the ABAQUS platform and was realized by using the user defined material subroutine (UMAT) wrote by Fortran scripts. Then, the predicted values of SIFT as well as the predicted results of classical composites strength theories such as Tsai-Wu and Hashin theories were compared with the testing results, and the results showed that the accuracy of SIFT prediction was the best. Meanwhile, based on SIFT, the failure mechanisms evolution from initial failure to final failure of AS4/3501-6 laminate open-hole structures under static loading compression were analyzed in details. Finally, the static loading compressive failure mechanisms of AS4/3501-6 laminate open-hole structures predicted by SIFT were compared with testing results. The results show that the progressive failure mechanisms predicted by SIFT agree well with the testing results. The obtained conclusions provide new thoughts for the strength prediction of CFRP structures.