Taylor Adam Lee, 22, of El Paso, Texas, faces charges of seeking to transmit national defense information to a foreign adversary, the department said in a statement.

"Taylor Lee allegedly attempted to provide classified military information on US tank vulnerabilities to a person he believed to be a Russian intelligence officer in exchange for Russian citizenship," said Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division.

"Today's arrest is a message to anyone thinking about betraying the US -- especially service members who have sworn to protect our homeland," Rozhavsky said.

Lee, who was stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas, attempted to provide technical information about the M1A2 Abrams tank to Russia's Ministry of Defense, the Justice Department said.

At a meeting in July, Lee allegedly passed an SD card containing documents and information about the tank to an individual he believed to be a representative of the Russian government, it said.