MgH2, TiH2, and ZrH2 are three typical metal hydrides that have been gradually applied to composite explosives and propellants as additives in recent years. To evaluate ignition sensitivity and explosion severity, the Hartmann device and spherical pressure vessel were used to test ignition energy and ex-plosion pressure, respectively. The results showed that the ignition sensitivity of ZrH2, TiH2 and MgH2 gradually increased. When the concentration of MgH2 is 83.0 g/m3 in Hartmann device, the ignition energy attained a minimum of 10.0 mJ. The explosion pressure of MgH2 were 1.44 times and 1.76 times that of TiH2 and ZrH2, respectively, and the explosion pressure rising rate were 3.97 times and 9.96 times that of TiH2 and ZrH2, respectively, through the spherical pressure vessel. It indicated that the reaction reactivity and reaction rate of MgH2 were higher than that of TiH2 and ZrH2. In addition, to conduct in-depth theoretical analysis of ignition sensitivity and explosion severity, gas production and combus-tion heat per unit mass of ZrH2, TiH2 and MgH2 were tested by mercury manometer and oxygen bomb calorimetry. The experimental results revealed that MgH2 had a relatively high gas production per unit mass (5.15 mL/g), while TiH2 and ZrH2 both had a gas production of less than 2.0 mL/g. Their thermal stability gradually increased, leading to a gradual increase in ignition energy. Furthermore, compared with theoretical combustion heat, the combustion ratio of MgH2, TiH2 and ZrH2 was more than 96.0%, with combustion heat value of 29.96, 20.94 and 12.22 MJ/kg, respectively, which was consistent with the explosion pressure and explosion severity test results.