During a ballistic impact, the protective material that plays the role of armour has to dissipate the kinetic energy in order to limit the projectile penetration in the target. Our aim is to emphasis on the role played by a liquid-filled system on the impact energy mitigation due to cavitation inception and later bubble expansion. To observe this, small scale experiments have been carried out on a three layers sample (Aluminium-Water-PMMA) submitted to shock waves induced by laser impact applied on the Al face. Rapid camera visualizations allow reproducing, at small scale, the effects of projectiles on armours for various monitored impact energies. We observe the formation of bubbles for sufficiently intense impacts due to traction effects in the water caused by the multiple reflections of waves within the sample. The cavitation threshold of water under dynamic loading is then experimentally investigated for two samples: one with 600 μm thick Al / 400 μm of water and 3 mm of PMMA, the other with 1000 μm thick Al / 1600 μm of water and 3 mm of PMMA. Using dimensional analysis, we show that the energy taken during the process of inception and bubble expansion becomes more important as the energy of the impact increases.