Conventional materials, such as metallic alloys, ceramics, cementitious materials, graphite/glass fiber reinforced woven and unidirectional composites are heavy and fail to provide adequate protection under extreme loading conditions, (e.g. high-energy blast or ballistic protection). The design of ultralight weight structures with enhanced blast and ballistic resistant properties and characteristics for hazard mitigation would require complex heterogeneous, functionally graded, layered composites. A variety of biological systems exhibit unique microstructural constructions that are tailored to provide exceptional functional response to dynamic loading conditions. For instance, fish scales are known to exhibit enormous resistant to penetration loading. A fish scale contains two to three distinct layers with saw tooth type anchoring structural features in addition to the gradation of hydroxyapatites and collagens. The rostrum of a paddle fish and beak of a woodpecker are functional materials with microstructures to absorb energy and momentum in a most efficient manner. The geometrical and material architectures are highly nonlinear with a wide variety of biomolecules providing resistance to defect nucleation and growth that are essential to absorb energy. The nonlinear geometries and materials generate ideal pathways to disperse and attenuate stress wave propagation to efficiently manage intense loadings. To design ultralight weight structures with high strength and toughness, biological systems provide unique design concepts such as the mechanisms involved in mitigating damage progression due to the gradation of protein like collagen fibers along the layers. The ability to design new material system would require characterization and modeling of biomaterials at all length scales and under high strain rate and shock loading conditions. With the advent of 3-D printers, it is now possible to print thin layers with wide range of properties. Bio-inspired systems provide certain design methodology to organize and arrange the various layers of dissimilar materials, from crystalline ceramics to heterogeneous biodegradable wood products. The fundamental elastic properties can be determined using representative volume element based finite element analyses using high resolution models. Dynamic experimental methods such as the split Hopkinson bar and shock tubes provide testbeds to characterize and validate the manufactured functionally layered material panels.