Twilight 2020

[RN7]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

That's pretty much the way it comes across to me. It stopped being a discussion a while back.
The American tanker who seems to be the main source for the claim that Australian Abrams have DU armour comes across as dogmatic in his beliefs despite rebuttals from an Australian Armoured Corp soldier who actually worked on the Australian Abrams.

The Australian government has a sometimes strange (read outright crazy) approach to the health and safety of military personnel at times, swinging between good practical common sense to "What the hell are they thinking?"
When the 76mm ammunition for the M113 MRVs was thought to be carcinogenic, the government immediately suspended all use of the 76mm gun (the gun does not have a fume extractor so fumes would vent into the turret).
When the Raven infantry radio was first issued, the batteries had a mercury component that could cause fumes if the case was cracked. SOP for damaged batteries was to immediately wrap them in plastic, burying them at a marked location and then a recovery team would remove the battery for full disposal.
At another point they went a little silly and decided that all General Service trucks in the Army had to be fitted with seatbelts in the flatbed so that they could safely transport troops (common sense finally saw the light of day and where necessary, coaches were used to transport personnel).

If the Australian Abrams were fitted with DU armour, there would be a stack of protocols in place to deal with everything from damage in peace time to damage in war time to general use to maintenance & refurbishment to who exactly in the Health & Occupational Safety government department would deal with it. The paper trail would be huge.
The fact that no such information has ever seen the light of day in the nearly two decades of us operating the Abrams suggest either a vast and incredibly effective conspiracy to deny such information to the wider world or, that DU armour is not being used.

You know my opinion and the American tankers opinion are no more dogmatic than yours?

If you can explain how these tanks are so heavy without DU armour then I won't have an argument with you.

None of the Australian tanks have ever been send outside of Australia or have been in combat. The armour on these tanks was fitted in America before the tanks were shipped to Australia. All major work on them is done in America, although I know that the gun on one tank was damaged and was repaired in Australia under supervision by US experts send out by GD. If the armour gets damaged and has to be repaired or replaced the tank will be shipped straight back to America as they are the only ones who can do it. The Australian government seems ok with all that. Why? I dunno maybe they know something!!