An engineering analysis of computing the penetration problem of a steel ball penetrating into fibre-reinforced composite targets is presented. Assume the metal ball is a rigid body, and the composite target is a transversely isotropic elasto-plastic material. In the analysis, a spherical cavity dilatation model is incorporated in the cylindrical cavity penetration method. Simulation results based on the modified model are in good agreement with the results for 3-D Kevlar woven (3DKW) composite anti-penetration experiments. Effects of the target material parameters and impact parameters on the penetration problem are also studied.