The integration of experimental and computer simulation studies is providing atomic-level understanding of irradiation-damage processes in silicon carbide. Density functional theory is used to determine the energetics of defect formation. Molecular dynamics methods are used to study both the energy dependence of defect production and the effects of cascade overlap processes. The accumulation of damage on both the Si and C sublattices has been determined experimentally for a range of ions. The consistent agreement of the experimental and computational results provides atomic-level insights into the interpretation of experimentally observed features.