A PAINT coating for military vehicles that has the ability to protect against chemical attacks is the ultimate aim for scientists working at Porton Down.

The new paint will be the next generation in coatings and will absorb chemical biological and radiological agents (CBR) to protect people operating inside and around the vehicle.

Dstl is looking at reactive coatings, which would contain catalysts and possible enzymes in order to create self-decontaminating coatings.

“Ultimately, what we’d like to create is a coating that changes colour to indicate its been contaminated, decontaminates itself, then returns to the original colour when it’s clean,” explained Dr Steven Mitchell, the Dstl research scientist leading the work.

“This is a long-term but not an unreasonable ultimate objective.”

Strippable coating is currently used as a quick colour change, which requires minimal training and can be easily applied by soldiers.

It can also be used as temporary camouflage to adapt a vehicle’s colour and reduce its visibility.

Ninety per cent of the coatings can be removed by scoring flat areas with a knife and then manually peeling it off.

The strippable technology was being demonstrated at Dstl’s new energy efficient Minerva Building on Thursday, which was officially opened by Prince Edward.