The effectiveness of lethal weapons is predominantly dependent on the overpressure generated and blast effect. Reactive structure materials (RSM) can be made of either metal-polymer mixtures or represent intermetallic phases. An example for a metal-polymer mixture is the system PTFE/W/Cu/Pb which shows higher penetration depth compared to the original PTFE/Al liner. The intermetallic phases (alloys) ZrW2 and HfW2 discussed in this review are very promising materials for use as reactive structure materials (RSMs). Both compounds have been shown to possess remarkable properties such as high melting temperatures, high densities, high hardness and high ignition energies on burning in air. The heats of combustion as well as the combustion temperatures have been calculated using the EXPLO5 code (version V6.05.02). ZrW2 and HfW2 can be prepared by melting the constituent elements in an arc-furnace. By cooling through peritectic phase lines above approximately 2000°C, samples of the nominal 1:2 composition were obtained as pure products (consisting of two phases, of which approximately 95% adopts the MgCu2 type structure and 5% the W structure). Both intermetallic phases are very dense and hard alloys which burn at a crash in air in a strong exothermic ignition reaction. Both intermetallic phases (alloys), ZrW2 and HfW2, are non-toxic.