Crew members of a French nuclear submarine logging runs on the fitness app Strava risked leaking their position and patrol schedule to Russia.
Strava allows members to share their fitness activities, such as online runs, and includes a map showing the location where the user completed the exercise.
The Île Longue, in the port of Brest in Finistère, is home to four nuclear submarines, each capable of carrying 16 nuclear missiles, approximately a thousand times the power of the Hiroshima bomb.
Land and sea patrols are carried out using drones 24 hours a day to ensure security and to enter, more than 2,000 employees must present identification.
Mobile phones are prohibited and must be kept in lockers at different checkpoints on the base.
Despite the tight security surrounding the facility, sensitive information was still able to leave the fortress thanks to users of the fitness app.
In the last ten years, more than 450 Strava users have been active within the walls of the complex.
Many of these users have not used pseudonyms and have kept their profiles public, allowing journalists from the world to discover the identities of the people at the base.
Runs recorded by crew members at a French naval base were posted online on the fitness app Strava.
A nuclear submarine leaving the port of Brest, where the l’Île Longue naval base is located.
Submarine crews following their routes have run the risk of patrol schedules being leaked to foreign powers.
An example was Paul (names and dates have been changed), who in January 2023 recorded sixteen activities.
On February 3, 2023, he ran around the docks where the submarines are moored, recording his times and locations in the app.
Then, over the next month, his account went silent and he suddenly stopped using Strava.
It was not active again until March 25, 2023.
Similarly, Strava users Arthur and Charles also abruptly stopped their Strava training after February 3 and resumed it around March 25.
This suggested that the three men began a patrol aboard one of the submarines.
Confirming this, Paul also justified his disappearance from the app by saying: “It’s hard to get back into sports after more than two and a half months in a poop box.”
He posted the accompanying message with emojis representing bubbles and a diving mask.
A map of the naval base at Ile Longue, near Brest, on the west coast of France.
The nuclear attack submarine “Emeraude” at the Brest naval base in western France.
The French Navy told Le Monde that despite the ban on mobile phones, smart watches could have gotten past security, allowing men to record their runs at the base.
The Navy acknowledged that there were “negligences on the part of personnel that do not necessarily constitute defects that could affect the activities of the Île Longue operational base.”
Strava’s activities could have allowed a foreign power to anticipate the departure of a nuclear submarine.
The last races held by Paul, Arthur and Charles before their departure took place at the docks where the submarines are moored, an area where access is strictly controlled and sporting activities are less frequent than on the athletics track.
Therefore, the tours taking place at the docks could mean the imminent departure of one of the submarines.