Abstract <p>This study presents the systematic experimental and numerical investigation on the ballistic performance of unidirectional CFRP composite laminates under projectile impact within sub ordinance velocity range. CFRP plates of 140 × 140 × 2 mm and having three different ply stacking configurations as (0/90/90/0), (90/45/90/45), and (0/45/45/0) were considered. Perforation experiments were carried out on pneumatic gun setup, whereas numerical modelling was done on the explicit module of the commercial FEA software ‘Abaqus.’ Hashin’s damage criteria was employed to capture the impact behavior of CFRP plate. Two different nosed projectiles namely ogival and hemispherical were incorporated to study the influence of nose shape on ballistic resistance of CFRP composite laminates. Numerical model was validated against the experimental values for the residual velocity and damage pattern and the results were found to be in good correlation. Ballistic performance was evaluated under the ballistic limit, energy absorption and damage pattern to study the effect of stacking sequence and projectile’s nose shape. The ballistic limit result obtained from the current study were also compared with the analytical equations from the literature. Higher ballistic limit and energy absorption was obtained for (0/90/90/0) CFRP plate against the hemispherical nosed projectile.</p>