Air filtration plays a vital role in the performance and operations of vehicles, especially for heavy-duty combat vehicles operating in the dusty and desert environment. Conventional filters made of cellulose-based media are generally used in most engine intake systems composed of microfibers. Fiber diameter and pore size are the two critical parameters that significantly affect the media's filtration performance and dust deposition. Nanofibers are typically less than 1 μm in diameter, and the nanofiber-coated filter media offers higher filtration performance than the conventional filters. Nylon nanofibers were prepared and coated over two different cellulose filter media by electrospinning. The bare and nanocoated filter media were tested on a lab-scale air filtration test rig and evaluated their filtration performance in terms of pressure drop, filtration efficiency, dust holding capacity, and quality factor (Q-factor). Experimental results showed that the nylon nanofibers coated filter media significantly improved the filtration efficiency and quality factor (Q-factor) compared to the conventional cellulose filter media. A similar analysis was performed on a composite nanofiber-coated media by adding carbon nanotubes (CNT) into the nylon polymer solution. The filtration performance of the resulting composite nanofibers-coated filter media was assessed and compared with the conventional filter media as well as conventional media coated with nylon-66 nanofibers. It was observed that the average fiber diameter obtained from nylon/CNT composite solution was reduced compared to that obtained from nylon solution. Experimental results show that the media coated with the nanofibers obtained from the composite nylon-66 (6 wt.%) and CNT (1 wt.% ) has the highest quality factor. Finally, an optimization study was done to optimize the electrospinning parameters such as polymer concentration, solution feed rate, and applied voltage for developing nylon-coated filter media with the best filtration performance by design of experiments (DoE).