The PA-15 is a late Cold War era pistol of French origin. It was developed by MAB in the 1960's as a private venture. The name PA-15 stands for Pistolet Automatique 15, which translates to automatic pistol and 15 refers to the magazine size. It was the first pistol to have a 15 round magazine within the pistol grip, improving the 13 round record set by the famous Browning High Power. Despite its capabilities sales were limited.

The PA-15 is a delayed blowback operated single action pistol with rotating barrel. The PA-15 is an all metal pistol with exception of the plastic grip plates. It has both a frame mounted and magazine safety. The double stack magazine makes the grip rather bulky and the weapon is quite heavy compared to other pistols with similar characteristics.

The PA-15 is a semi-automatic pistol which fires the 9x19mm round from a 15 round magazine. Extended 20 round magazines were produced in limited quantities. The effective range is a few dozen meters. The target pistol with longer barrel is capable of better accuracy.

Since a 9x19mm pistol could not be sold to French civilians and military purchases were limited the PA-15 was produced predominantly for export sales, including civilian, law enforcement and military sales.