Abstract: A lightweight armor having a durable spall cover for suppressing debris that would otherwise be ejected from the armor as a result of the impact of a projectile or missile on the lightweight armor. In addition, the invention allows a ceramic or ceramic-based composite armor panels to be dropped onto a concrete surface without sustaining any damage to the ceramic tile. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is a laminate comprising a polymer sheet outer layer, a flexible foam sheet or flexible honeycomb inner layer, a ceramic-based armor plate, and a fiber-reinforced plastic laminate backing, as well as adhesive layers bonding each of the main layers to its adjacent layer or layers. When an object impacts the polymer sheet outer layer, the impact force is distributed by the polymer sheet outer layer to the flexible foam inner layer that in turn absorbs some of the kinetic energy.