Abstract: The effect of toughened compound alumina ceramic on anti-penetrating performance is investigated in this research. Simulations on tungsten long rod penetrating into AD95 ceramic/metal targets and 10% zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) ceramic/metal targets were done by using AUTODYN software and JH-2 model. Anti-penetration performances of AD95 and ZTA ceramic have been compared to that of 45 steel. The results show that, under the impact with high velocity, ceramic materials have higher protection capability than that of 45 steel. By comparison, both the thickness efficiency and mass efficiency of ZTA ceramic are higher than that of AD95 ceramic. The numerical results show that the improvement on ballistic resistance could be clearly observed by increasing the toughness of target with ZTA ceramic.