The paper reports the enhanced hardness of nanocomposite coatings, their thermal stability, protection of the substrate against oxidation at temperatures above 1 000 ℃, Xray amorphous coatings thermally stable above 1 000 ℃ and new advanced hard nanocomposite coatings with enhanced toughness, which exhibit low values of the effective Young's modulus (E^*) satisfying the condition H/E^*>0.1, high elastic recovery W_e≥60%, strongly improved tribological properties, and enhanced resistance to cracking. The trends of next development of hard nanocomposite coatings are briefly outlined.