The work aims to verify the buffer effectiveness of shoulder-fired barreled missile's polyurethane foam helmet in 0.5 m drop test. The test show that the stopper pin block was shear failure and the test obtained the missile acceleration data by acceleration sensor fixed on the projectile. Then, the drop process was simulated by the finite element simulation software Ansys/LS-DYNA to respectively obtain the stress distribution of stopper pin block and the acceleration data of missile body. The stress in some area of the stopper pin block exceeded its material strength limit, resulting in the element failure, which was consistent with the test phenomenon. The maximum acceleration of missile body in the axis direction was 200g, with a deviation of 9.3% compared with the test value (183g), which indicated that the established simulation model was reasonable and effective. According to this model, the effectiveness of the two improved optimization methods was verified by simulation. Finally, a reasonable and effective finite element model is built through the comparison of experiment and simulation, and it is verified that changing the block material and thickened helmet can meet the strength requirement of 0.5 m drop, so as to provide effective suggestions for the further optimization of the product, improve the product development efficiency and save the test cost.