AEP-64 paint systems resistant to chemical agents and decontaminants

What it is

AEP-64 is a NATO Allied Engineering Publication that sets the minimum laboratory performance requirements a paint system has to meet for the protection of land military equipment, specifically against corrosion, chemical agents and decontaminants, while also providing camouflage (clause 2.1.1). It is not itself a technical specification a supplier can meet in the abstract: it is the technical content that STANAG 4360 covers, and it is through that STANAG that NATO nations commit to using it. A paint system meets AEP-64 because a member nation has written it into a national equipment specification, or a contract has named it directly, not because the document applies on its own.

Who it covers, and what it excludes

The publication covers internal and external surfaces of armoured and transportation vehicles, engineering equipment, shelters (including COLPRO shelters under AEP-54), and portable or deployable decontamination systems (clause 2.2.2). It "does not cover ammunitions and aircrafts" (clause 2.2.2.b), an exclusion the document states plainly rather than leaving to inference. The considered environment is the medium (C3) corrosivity category defined by ISO 12944-2 (clause 2.2.3), and the paint system has to reach High Durability under ISO 12944-1: a minimum 15-year life before complete removal, with topcoat colour stability for at least 2 years (clause 2.2.4). Coverage runs to first application, or an equivalent full recoat after removing a pre-existing system, on steel and aluminium alloy substrates, and the system has to be adaptable to in-service localized repairs and general topcoat renewal over that life (clause 2.2.5). Gloss, emissivity and reflectance values are explicitly out of scope (clause 2.2.7).

What the paint system has to be

A compliant system is a primer plus a finishing coat, each a pigmented multi-pack resin, with a technical justification required for any use of chromates in the primer (clause 5.1.2). Minimum dry film thickness is set per component: primer and finishing paint each not less than the paint manufacturer's own recommended minimum, and the paint system as a whole not less than 75 micrometres (clause 4.2).

The test battery

Table 2 sets sixteen required tests plus one optional screening test, and "a sample taken from any part of the supply shall comply with the requirements in Table 2" (clause 5.3.1). They cover appearance, an optional tri-n-butyl phosphate screening test, optical characteristics, scratch hardness, flexibility, cross-cut adhesion, resistance to continuous condensation, hydrocarbons, acids, decontaminants, a falling weight test, artificial weathering, corrosion resistance (neutral salt spray or cyclic corrosion for steel, clause 5.3.3; alternate immersion or filiform corrosion for aluminium alloys) and hydraulic fluid resistance. Chapter 7 sets out the methods in detail: tri-n-butyl phosphate resistance is 168 hours' immersion at 70±2°C followed by a scratch test to ISO 1518, and artificial weathering runs 1008 hours of UV exposure and condensation cycling to ISO 11507 (clause 7.6.1.2). Chemical Agents Resistance (test 12) is not specified here at all: Table 2 names AEP-65 for its substrate, method and limits alike, and it is "strongly recommended to conduct the optional screening Test 2 prior to the Chemical Agent Resistance test of AEP-65" as an early pass/fail indicator (clause 5.3.2). Not every tolerance is fixed centrally: several optical and visual limits, and the aluminium surface-preparation method, are left "to be agreed between the supplier and the purchaser" (clause 6.2 and multiple Table 2 rows).

How you are evaluated

AEP-64 names no certifying, accrediting or auditing body, and describes no scheme for certifying an organisation or a paint system against it. Evaluation is by laboratory test and sample compliance: the supply is sampled and tested to Chapter 7's methods against the panel counts and dimensions in Annex A, and several tolerances are agreed directly between the supplier and the purchaser rather than fixed by the document. At the level of a nation, AEP-64 "shall be considered to have been enforced" once that nation "has made its specifications comply with the requirements of this Allied Publication" (Foreword).

Standards it references

STANAG 4360 is the agreement AEP-64 is covered by; it is how NATO nations record their commitment to use this publication. AEP-54 is named for the COLPRO Collective Protective Shelters this publication's paint systems also cover (clause 2.2.2). AEP-65 supplies the whole of the Chemical Agent Resistance test that Table 2 test 12 adopts. STANAG 1135 identifies the H-542 brake fluid used in the hydraulic fluid resistance test (clause 7.7.1.1). AEP-64 also cites AEP-7 for the decontaminants used in its own decontaminant-resistance test, and around twenty civil paint and coatings test-method standards for its individual tests, principally the ISO 12944 corrosion-protection series, ISO 1518, ISO 2409, ISO 4628, ISO 6272-1, ISO 9227 and ISO 11507, plus EN 3212. These sit outside our catalogue and are named here rather than linked.

Getting the document

NATO publishes AEP-64 through the NATO Standardization Document Database at no charge. ComplyTrain does not sell it or host a copy; the NSDD listing for AEP-64 is the source.

Standards it references

• AEP-54Background
• AEP-07Background
• AEP-65Background
• STANAG 1135Background