The paper describes mechanical behavior of aluminum alloy AW5005 (EN AW5005) un- der impact loading. The work is focused on tensile tests and the process of perforation of aluminum alloy AW5005 sheets. Experimental, analytical and numerical investigations are carried out to analyse in details the perforation process. Based on these approaches, ballistic properties of the structure impacted by a conical nose shape projectile are studied. Different failure criteria are discussed, coupling numerical and experimental analyses for a wide range of strain rates. Optimization method functions are used to identify the parameters of the failure criteria. Finally, good correlation is obtained between the numerical and experimental results for both tension and perforation tests.