The US military runs on JP-8 jet fuel. Without lanthanum, surging American jet fuel production becomes slower, costlier, and riskier. Without lanthanum, refineries can still make jet fuel, but there is a major trade-off: Catalysts wear out faster, output quality drops, and costs rise. A US plan for mitigationThe good news is that the United States is not powerless against this jet fuel production vulnerability. Addressing it now is far cheaper than discovering in a crisis that China holds the key to America’s fuel supply.