To investigate the effect of doping La₂O₃ on the reactive characteristics of Al/CuO thermite， Al/CuO thermites with equivalent ratio（φ） of 1.0， 1.4 and 1.8 doped with different content of La₂O₃ were prepared by mechanical mixing method. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscope（SEM）， X-energy dispersive spectrometer（EDS）， X-ray diffractometer（XRD） and differential scanning calorimetry（DSC）， respectively. Combustion and gas production performances were evaluated by using flame propagation experiment， T-jump ignition and pressure cell test. The results show that the initiation reaction temperature and the peak temperature for the Al/CuO thermite doped with La₂O₃ were significantly lower than those of Al/CuO thermite without doping La₂O₃ at φ=1.4. The heat release of Al/CuO thermite was 1772 J·g^-1 when 2% La₂O₃ was doped， which increased by 15.1% compared with that of the undoped Al/CuO thermite （~1540 J·g^-1）. The combustion rate of Al/CuO thermite with 2% La₂O₃ was 90.8 m·s^-1 at φ=1.0， which was 46.7% higher than that of the undoped Al/CuO thermite （61.9 m·s^-1）. The ignition temperature of Al/CuO thermite was also raised when La₂O₃ was added. It is suggested that La₂O₃ improved the gas production performance of Al/CuO thermite to varying degrees. The peak pressure of Al/CuO thermite formulated at φ=1.0 and φ=1.8 increased by 34.5% and 13.7%， respectively. The effect of equivalent ratio at φ=1.4 on peak pressure of Al/CuO thermite was unclear. The combustion results indicated that doping La₂O₃ will alter the flame propagation mode of Al/CuO thermite. The combustion state was observed to be changed from deflagration to slow combustion with the increase of La₂O₃. The inclusion of La₂O₃ in Al/CuO thermite is suggested to be used as a means to control the propagation velocity and energy release.