The US Air Force’s recent decision to adopt the Magpul PMag Gen M3 was based on Army testing conducted in 2015, according to a spokesperson for the Air Force. In a communication with Military.com writer Matthew Cox, Vicki Stein of the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center said that the US Army’s M855A1 Conformance Testing on Commercial Magazines report, published by Aberdeen Proving Grounds in January of 2015, was the basis for the USAF’s decision. “When pursuing any capability based requirement, and before conducting any tests, the Air Force will first work closely with our joint partners to see if they have conducted any testing. In this instance, we utilized the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center’s M855A1 Conformance Testing on Commercial Magazines to make our decision,” Stein told Cox.

This comment strongly indicates that the Magpul PMag Gen M3 is actually “vendor Foxtrot” from the 2015 Aberdeen tests. In these tests, Foxtrot produced far superior results than any other vendor, not only having zero magazine-related malfunctions, but also, amazingly, producing zero feed ramp or forcing cone damage in any of the sample weapons (including M4A1, M16A4, and M27 rifles). Needless to say, results of this kind are the sort of endorsement that every company hopes for.

EDIT: Magpul confirmed with TFB that they were indeed “vendor Foxtrot”.

The results of this report do raise some questions, however: If the Army knew as early as 2015 that they PMag was not only superior to the competition, but provided virtually perfect function over its lifespan with M855A1, why did they embark on a program to produce a new magazine (which resulted in the ill-fated Enhanced Performance Magazine), anyway? This question may be moot already – there is already some noise from the US Army itself about a move towards the PMag.