Matthew Cox reports at Military.com …

Despite the success of the PMAG, Army officials from the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command issued a “safety of use message” in April that placed it, and all other polymer magazines, on an unauthorized list.

The message did not single out PMAGs, but instead authorizes only the use of Army-issued aluminum magazines. The message offers little explanation for the new policy except to state that “Units are only authorized to use the Army-authorized magazines listed in the technical manuals.” Nor does it say what Army units should now do with the millions of dollars’ worth of PMAGs they’ve purchased over the years.

This appears to be a classic case of Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome. Some types of equipment are very hard for individuals to evaluate the effectiveness of, body armor for example. Magazines are not hard to evaluate it. If a solider purchases a $15 magazine that malfunctions he can just throw it in the trash. It is crazy to think that soldiers are deliberately choosing (due to ignorance or stupidity) bad magazines.

Last year it was rumored that some Marine battalions had banned or restricted the use of Magpul PMAGs because they were incompatible with the M27 IAR, which is at least a marginally legitimate reason to ban them.

[ Many thanks to Bryan for emailing us the link. ]