has improved material perforation characteristics over previous thermite formulations and the starting materials and reaction products of the formulation have low toxicity in general the thermite formulation of the present invention comprises a fuel of magnesium aluminum alloy magnalium and a combination of oxidizers comprising cuo and moo 3 preferably a small amount of binder material is added to the formulation in one embodiment the formulation includes from about 3 percent by weight to about 35 percent by weight magnalium from about 30 percent by weight to about 70 percent by weight cuo and from about 15 percent by weight to about 35 percent by weight moo 3 about three percent of a binder material is preferably added to the formulation in the most preferred embodiment of the invention the thermite formulation contains about 39 8 percent by weight cuo about 33 percent by weight moo 3 about 24 2 percent by weight magnalium and about 3 percent by weight of a binder material numerous tests of thermite formulations using a number of different fuels oxidizers and binders were conducted to develop the improved thermite formulation described herein the testing devices and set up are described below experimental torches were constructed of nema grade c phenolic this material exhibits excellent heat resistance strength and is easily machined the torches consisted of a lower nozzle body and an upper composition holding body the nozzle body included a 82 degree converging nozzle and a 0 070 u2033 throat the composition holding body consisted of.