Abstract: In order to clarify the service performance of typical protective coating systems in the South China Sea and achieve a good simulation of the artificial aging process of the laboratory to natural environment, atmospheric and environmental data in the characteristic area of the South China Sea were collected, and an artificial accelerated aging test was designed. On this basis, contrastive analysis of the coating surface morphologies and protective performances during artificial aging and natural exposure in the South China Sea were carried out. The result shows that the artificial UV aging test can well reflect the service of the protective coating system in the South China Sea, and that it has a good correlation with the natural exposure test in the South China Sea. The acceleration factors based on the coating adhesion, color and gloss test are 8.6, 8.8 and 11.6, respectively.