Location of French aircraft carrier revealed by US fitness app

(SeaPRwire) –   Le Monde used Strava data to guide satellite imagery in tracking the 262-meter warship

According to Le Monde, a French Navy officer’s use of a smartwatch and the Strava fitness app to log a run has revealed the position of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier.

President Emmanuel Macron sent France’s sole aircraft carrier towards Cyprus following the US-Israeli military action against Iran, a conflict in which Tehran has launched retaliatory strikes on Western military assets.

On Friday, Le Monde stated it could determine the near real-time location of the large warship by examining public data on the Strava platform. The newspaper correlated geolocation information from the sailor’s public profile with a European Space Agency satellite photo depicting the Charles de Gaulle and its strike group approximately 100 kilometers from the Turkish coast.

The running path logged on March 13 displayed a zigzag formation, indicating the person was circling the deck of a ship in motion, though the report noted the vessel itself was not explicitly named.

For years, security issues involving fitness applications and military members have been highlighted, especially during foreign operations. Strava, a service founded in San Francisco in 2009, enhanced its privacy settings after a 2018 investigation revealed its ‘Global Heatmap’ tool had inadvertently charted several Western military bases.

The French Armed Forces General Staff characterized this recent incident as a violation of operational security protocols, Le Monde reported, also noting it had found multiple personnel who posted location data or pictures from naval operations online.

Although France has not participated in the US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran or assigned its navy to protective duties in the Strait of Hormuz—which Iran has largely closed—it has nevertheless felt the effects of the conflict.

Drone assaults by forces allied with Iran have targeted at least two French military sites in the Middle East, including one in Iraq that resulted in the death of a French soldier and injuries to six others.