Abstract Aluminum foam sandwiches with a metallic bonding between face sheets and foam core have been produced by a powder metallurgy method. Static three-point bending tests with different span were carried out to investigate the deformation and failure behavior. The fracture surface of the typical measured specimens was observed. It was found that load–deflection curve of AFS with different face sheet thickness under different span bending tests exhibited three distinct regions: a linear elastic region, a rapid load drop region and a plateau region. Three failure modes, indentation, core shear and plastic hinge, were observed simultaneously during the bending tests. Fracture analysis indicated that an excellent bonding existed between face sheets and foam core due to the retained cohesion between them.