5.56mm 30 Round Magazine Improvement Program

At the Joint Services Small Arms Systems Annual Symposium, Exhibition and Firing Demonstration, Adam Foltz of the US Army ARDEC gave a presentation on the 5.56mm 30 Round Magazine Improvement Program.

Magazines have long been one of the top causes of failure-to-fire conditions in M16/M4/AR15 type rifles.

Mr. Folzts presentation describes three areas of improvement for the magazines:

• Improved follower and spring for current 30rd magazine
• Redesigned composite magazine
• Magazine feed lips inspection tool

Individually and together, these improvements will save the lives of American soldiers in the field while concurrently reducing the cost of magazines.

Civilian magazine manufacturers will also benefit from the Army’s research and development efforts, which will give civilian shooters access to lower-cost and higher-quality composite magazines. Plus, we will also be able to refit our existing magazines with the higher-reliability springs and followers. In addition, we will be able to test our magazines feed lips to know when we can use an aluminum magazine and when we need to repair or replace one.