Today's jet fuels must adhere to tight specifications. Quality of fuel remains a prime concern. Thermal stability and lubricity are of great importance but pose problems as they tend to be mutually exclusive. Research continues in both areas in the search for improvements. Details the NATO single‐fuel concept whereby vehicles and aircraft alike can operate on the same fuel in battlefield operations. To attain this land vehicles would need to adapt to jet fuel. In a similar vein, moves are being made to bring about an international uniformity in specification of jet fuel. Finally details research into alternative fuels and concludes that continuing co‐operation between the fuel and hardware industries, improved methods of property measurement and research into alternative fuels are all vital for the future.