A damping strapdown inertial navigation system (DSINS) can effectively suppress oscillation errors of strapdown inertial navigation systems (SINSs) and improve the navigation accuracy of SINSs. Aiming at overcoming the disadvantages of traditional damping methods, a DSINS, based on a Kalman filter (KF), is proposed in this paper. Using the measurement data of accelerometers and calculated navigation parameters during the navigation process, the expression of the observation equation is derived. The calculation process of the observation in both the internal damping state and the external damping state is presented. Finally, system oscillation errors are compensated by a KF. Simulation and test results show that, compared with traditional damping methods, the proposed method can reduce system overshoot errors and shorten the convergence time of oscillation errors effectively.