Africa-Press – Lesotho. The near real-time location of France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was inadvertently revealed when a sailor recorded a deck jog on the popular sports tracking app Strava, the Le Monde daily reported Thursday, exposing the warship’s position in the Mediterranean as it deployed toward Iran.
The newspaper said a young naval officer used a connected smartwatch to log a run of just over seven kilometers on the ship’s deck, with his public Strava profile broadcasting his location almost in real time.
Le Monde verified the breach using satellite imagery taken shortly after the jog, which clearly showed the distinctive outline of the 262-meter carrier northwest of Cyprus island, roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Turkish coast.
France had announced the carrier’s deployment on March 3, days after the start of US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
The Armed Forces General Staff confirmed to Le Monde that posting the run was not in compliance with current instructions on digital security, adding that “appropriate measures will be taken by the command.”
The newspaper also found at least one other crew member aboard a French naval vessel on active deployment who had publicly posted geolocated sports activity, suggesting the problem was not isolated.
