The cost associated with maintenance and field replacement of military assets is often reduced by the application of temporary coating systems that protect the military vehicles against corrosion. The performance of these coatings can be assessed using coating degradation sensors. This paper addresses the laboratory and field studies of an impedance based sensor that utilizes wireless, mote based technology. The ability of the coating degradation sensor to assess coating failures in real and simulated coastal environments is demonstrated. Examples of the sensor output to determine failures of corrosion preventive compounds (CPCs) in case of boldly exposed surfaces will be presented.