High-velocity fragmentation of a compact projectile perforating a discrete bumper (e.g. steel meshes) may produce a cloud of debris with a specific structure consisting of two morphologically distinguishable parts. This debris cloud forms on the withes-plate, which is fixed at some distance from the bumper, two types of crater groups. The first one, which corresponds to the jets of debris that are emitted from the frontal part of the projectile, looks like chains of linearly distributed craters, which diverge from the center of all witness-plate damage. The second group consists of the craters, which are distributed similarly to the case of a standard Whipple’s based double wall scheme. We performed a series of high-velocity impact experiments with aluminum 6.35-mm spheres as a projectile and single steel meshes as a bumper. The range of velocities was 3.25- 3.30 km/s. The diameter of wire used in meshes varies in the range from 0.6 to 1.2 mm while the distance between the neighboring wires remains constant and equal to ~ 2 mm. It was found that the total kinetic energy of all after-impact fragments, which are involved in the cratering process on the witness-plate. Decreases as the diameter of mesh wire increases. On the other hand, the kinetic energy of the fragments involved into formation of the chains of linearly distributed craters seems to be unchanged and even reveals the tendency to growth. That means that under considered experiment conditions the increase of the wire diameter intensifies the mechanism of fragmentation associated with the penetration of wire elements into projectile material.