Abstract This paper presents an experimental and numerical study to estimate ballistic limit velocity, V 50 , of plain-weave hybrid S2-glass-IM7 graphite fibers/toughened SC-79 resin composite beams. The tests were conducted on hybrid S2-glass-IM7 graphite fibers/toughened SC-79 resin and non-hybrid S2 glass-fiber/toughened SC-79 resin composites beams using a high-speed gas gun. The ballistic impact tests were then modeled using a 3-D dynamic nonlinear finite element (FE) code, LS-DYNA, modified with a proposed user-defined nonlinear-orthotropic damage model. The ballistic limit velocities, V 50 , for both composite beams were then estimated using three approaches: (1) Only experimental tests, (2) combined experimental and numerical tests, (3) FE calculated residual velocities, and FE calculated residual energies. For each type of composite beams, the parameters for the well-known Lambert-Jones equation were also computed. Good agreement between experimental and numerical results was observed.