As the most widely used military composite explosive， the performance of melt-cast explosives is closely related to the choice of carrier explosive. The current research advances of melt-cast explosives were reviewed. The physicochemical properties and detonation performances of 13 representative melt-cast carrier explosives （such as 2，4，6-trinitrotoluene （TNT）， 2，4-dinitroanisole （DNAN）， etc） were discussed. The molecular structures， synthesis methods， physicochemical properties and detonation performances of 16 newly synthesized melt-cast explosives were introduced （such as bis（1，2，4-oxadiazole）bis（methylene） dinitrate （BOM）， etc）. Their advantages and shortcomings as melt-cast explosives were analyzed. The effects of different functional groups and molecular structures on the properties of the compounds were discussed. The future development direction of melt-cast carrier explosive is to understand the effects of molecular structure on performance of explosives， and to design and synthesize a series of new compounds with excellent comprehensive performance， in order to meet the application requirements of melt-cast explosives.