Ukraine gets 'tank-like' vehicles and Biden gets a classified document scandal

Happy Thursday, and welcome back to The Ruck.

I launched this newsletter in August 2022, and since then, I’ve settled on this format: a reported column on national security followed by a news digest called The Rundown. And the dispatches have gotten somewhat lengthy—last week’s on U.S. military pilots training China’s Navy was pushing 2,200 words.

After a few months of this, I’ve realized that I’d much rather deliver either one or the other in a single dispatch—and many readers have told me they especially enjoy the news digest.

So from now on, my usual approach will be to send a weekly rundown of national security news. But when I have something interesting to say, like how I think the rise of China’s Marine Corps is something to watch, I will write about that instead.

What’s this mean for you? Not much, really.

I’m letting you know the format is changing—you’ll keep getting The Ruck in your inbox as usual. But if you’d like to make changes to your account in light of this, I totally understand. You can click here to update your user profile. Or, if you’re not a subscriber yet, you can sign up below:

Now, without further ado… here’s what’s happening in the national security world. Thanks for reading.

• The US is sending Ukraine nearly $3 billion in additional aid, including Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Despite what you may hear in some reports, they are not tanks. Although you can technically get away with calling them “tank-like.”

  • How will Ukraine use such vehicles? Task & Purpose talked to experts.

    “They provide tremendous overwatch to infantry,” said retired Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who led the 1st Cavalry Division and served as head of Multi-National Corps-Iraq. “You’re able to move them in a relatively secure vehicle to a position of advantage. I’m sure the Ukrainians will be able to get more [troops] in them because they don’t have quite as much kit as we do — possibly as many as 10 folks in the back of that thing.” 

  • Anyway, that and many other big-ticket items are in the latest package:

• Chinese researchers claim they have broken the RSA algorithm that underpins most