A STANAG magazine is a type of detachable firearm magazine proposed by NATO in October 1980.[1] Shortly after NATO's acceptance of the 5.56x45mm NATO rifle cartridge, Draft Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 4179 was proposed in order to allow the military services of member nations easily to share rifle ammunition and magazines during operations, at the individual soldier level, in the interest of easing logistical concerns. The magazine proposed for standardization was originally designed for the U.S. M16 rifle. Many NATO member nations, but not all, subsequently developed or purchased rifles with the ability to accept this type of magazine. However the standard was never ratified and remains a 'Draft STANAG'[2]
STANAG-compatible magazines can be made to almost any capacity, though those used for military service usually hold 20 or 30 rounds of 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition. 40 and 50-round box magazines as well as 90-round drum magazines and 100-round Beta C-Mag drum magazines designed to comply with STANAG 4179 have also been manufactured.[3] Magpul has recently released a STANAG-compatible casket magazine[4] and by SureFire in December 2010 as the High Capacity Magazine (HCM) with an ammo capacity of 60 to 100 rounds.[5]
The STANAG-compatible box magazine, while relatively compact compared to other types of 5.56x45mm NATO box magazines, has often been criticized for a perceived lack of durability and a tendency to malfunction unless treated with a level of care that often cannot be afforded under combat conditions. Because STANAG 4179 is only a dimensional standard, production quality from manufacturer to manufacturer is not uniform. Magazines have been manufactured with lightweight aluminum or plastic bodies and other inexpensive materials in order to keep costs down, or to meet requirements that treat the magazine more as a disposable piece of equipment than one that is supposed to stand up to repeated combat use.
These problems have been addressed by several manufacturers, most notably Heckler & Koch, who designed a new 30-round STANAG-compatible box magazine during their contract to rebuild and improve the SA80 rifle for the United Kingdom. As a result, several manufacturers now offer improved STANAG-compatible magazines as well as high-grade stainless steel bodies, rust- and set-resistant chrome-silicon springs, and anti-tilt followers as upgrade components for existing STANAG magazines.
Some firearms, while not originally manufactured to feed from STANAG magazines, can be converted to use them. An example is the Austrian Steyr AUG assault rifle, for which an alternate stock assembly is available to allow the use of STANAG magazines. Also the German Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle features a "modular magazine well" system. This allows the original magazine well, engineered to feed from the proprietary translucent plastic magazine, to be replaced with one that accepts STANAG magazines. Magnolia States Armory offers an adapter that allows the use of STANAG magazines in .223 Galil rifles as well as one that works in AK47 platform Saiga, WASR3 and Norinco .223 rifles.