A chemically stable syrup of poly(methyl methacrylate) in its monomer was prepared with a suitable dual-initiating system. Nanoalumina particles were prepared by the autoignition of aluminum nitrate with urea and were made compatible with the organic medium by chemical modification with methacrylol isocyanate. The polymer syrup prepared in this way was applied between two poly(methyl methacrylate) sheets (each 10 cm x 10 cm x 2 mm), and the composite thus prepared was tested with a bullet-firing machine and a drop-weight-impact testing machine. The impact strength measurements of the two-plate composite from both of these procedures showed that the impact resistance doubled in the case of nanoalumina. The modeling of the damage to the multilayered composite by the critical impact energy was performed with the relation E = pn(2) + qn + r, where E is the impact energy, p, q, and r are constants, and n is the number of layers. Experiments showed that the presence of nanoparticles in the adhesive increased the value of the constants. The 10-layer composite was further tested with a 0.32 Indian Ordinance Factory (IOF) revolver with a bullet mass of 9.9 g and a muzzle velocity of 236 +/- 7 m/s (muzzle energy = 275 J) from a 10-m distance, which produced an ordinary indentation with no penetration. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.