The use of kerosene fuels in internal combustion engines is getting more widespread. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization military is pushing for the use of a single fuel on the battlefield in order to reduce logistical issues. Moreover, in some countries, fuel adulteration is a serious matter where kerosene is blended with diesel and used in diesel engines. So far, most investigations done regarding the use of kerosene fuels in diesel engines are experimental and there is negligible simulation work done in this area possibly because of the lack of a robust and compact kerosene reaction mechanism. This work focuses on the development of a small but reliable kerosene-diesel reaction mechanism, suitable to be used for diesel engine simulations. The new kerosene-diesel reaction mechanism consists only of 48 species and 152 reactions. Furthermore, the kerosene sub-mechanism in this new mechanism is well validated for its ignition delay times and has proven to replicate kerosene combustion well in a constant volume combustion chamber and an optical engine. Overall, this new kerosene-diesel reaction mechanism is proven to be robust and practical for diesel engine simulations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.