Abstract: In order to improve the anti-penetration capacity of lightweight composite armors, metal lattice truss cored sandwich protective structures filled with ceramic rods internally and packaged by epoxy resin hybridized with short cut glass fibers were proposed. First, the anti-penetration capacity for projectile of metal lattice truss cored sandwich protective structures filled with ceramic rods was investigated by ballistic impact experiments. Then, considering failure mode and energy absorption efficiency, the anti-penetration mechanism of the sandwich protective structures was synthetically analyzed. The results show that the main failure modes of metal lattice truss cored sandwich protective structures filled with ceramic rods consist the tensile failure of metal lattice truss structure and hybrid fillers, the fracture of ceramic rods, the local shear failure of front sheet and rear sheet, and the overall bending deformation of rear sheet. In the penetration process of spherical projectile, the anti-penetration capacity of protective structures is significantly improved for the large plastic deformation and shear cavity of metal lattice truss, the fracture failure of ceramic rods and epoxy resin, and the macro-bending deformation of front sheet. The conclusions obtained can provide some references for the protective design of new lightweight composite armors.