I would argue that just because we are unaware of what armour the Australian M1A1 AIM SA variant is using, does not automatically mean any damned thing at all.
We don't know what armour it has because the Australian government and military is not telling us. What they have told us is that it is not DU and for those of us who live here, we see that the political situation here means that if the public found out that a politician had lied to us about depleted uranium, it would be the kiss of death for that politician and their party in the next election and probably the election after that.
Public sentiment here against DU is very strong and it is strong enough to shift the vote against a party. It seems that this factor is constantly underestimated by outsiders.
The Abrams we operate are not identical configuration to the M1A1 AIM SA model that the US initially offered. The Australian Abrams are a mix of US Army and USMC features. The Australian Abrams are fitted with a refrigeration unit, refrigeration power unit, various USMC fittings for wading,exhaust deflector, infantry telephone, elements of the TUSK system, elements of the SEP system and various other fittings to make it more suitable for the Australian bush, jungle and urban environments.
These vehicles are for all intents and purposes, bespoke.
The weight of 63,500 tonnes (69.9 Tons) is loaded combat weight. Australian tanks have often had a higher loaded combat weight than the same vehicle from other armies because in Australian service we tend to carry a hell of a lot more fuel and water per individual vehicle as well as having extra stowage bins for spares.
Note that a US Army configured M1A1 AIM is listed with a weight of 67.6 Tons. I don't see that extra 1.4 ton on Aussie Abrams as automatically proving the use of DU armour.
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