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This paper reports an original inverse perforation tests on foam core sandwich panels under impact loading. The key point is the use of an instrumented Hopkinson pressure bar as a perforator and at the same time a measuring device. It aims at a high quality piercing force record during the whole perforation process, which is not available in common free-flying projectile–target testing schemes. This new testing arrangement allows for the measurement of piercing force-displacement curves under quasi-static and impact loadings of sandwich samples, which is made of 40 mm AlSi7Mg0.5 Cymat foam cores and 0.8 mm thick 2024 T3 aluminium sheet as top and bottom skins. Compared with quasi-static top skin peak loads (the maximal load before the perforation of top skins) obtained under same geometric and clamping conditions and even in the case that the used foam core (Cymat) and aluminium skin sheet are known and have been confirmed to be rate insensitive, a significant enhancement under impact loading (20%) of the top skin peak load is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]