Abstract The dynamic compressive response of corrugated carbon-fibre reinforced epoxy sandwich cores has been investigated using a Kolsky-bar set-up. Compression at quasi-static rates up to v0 = 200 ms−1 have been tested on three different slenderness ratios of strut. High speed photography was used to capture the failure mechanisms and relate these to the measured axial compressive stress. Experiments show significant strength enhancement as the loading rate increases. Although material rate sensitivity accounts for some of this, it has been shown that the majority of the strength enhancement is due to inertial stabilisation of the core members. Inertial strength enhancement rises non-linearly with impact velocity. The largest gains are associated with a shift to buckle modes composed of 2–3 half sine waves. The loading rates tested within this study are similar to those that are expected when a sandwich core is compressed due to a blast event.