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Timing of posts by sailors on exercise tracker Strava reportedly allowed calculation of submarine patrol dates and durations
Sailors using the popular exercise-tracking app Strava may have revealed the schedule and patrol durations of France’s nuclear submarines to adversaries, news outlet Le Monde has reported.
France operates four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, one of which is always supposed to be at sea to ensure retaliation against a potential first strike. They are based out of Ile Longue, a naval base near the Atlantic port of Brest, which is subject to strict security protocols.
According to Le Monde, however, some base personnel who posted their exercise data to Strava would go offline for months and then justify their absence in a way that revealed details of their deployment at sea.
“It’s tough to get back into exercise after more than two and a half months in a poop box,” one sailor posted in the app, using emojis of a diving mask and bubbles.
Strava showed this particular sailor doing a ten-kilometer run for 45 minutes one day and then nothing for the next 50 days. Two other sailors also ran laps that day, along the same docks where the “black boats” are moored, disappearing at the same time. Yet the deterrent’s patrol schedule is officially classified.
The French Navy has acknowledged “negligence on the part of personnel” but said that this “does not necessarily constitute flaws that could affect the activities” of the base.
Some 2,000 employees at Ile Longue need to submit to scanners, facial recognition, and guard dogs to enter and leave the base, while all cell phones and other electronic devices must be stored in specific lockers at checkpoints, Le Monde has reported.
Smartwatches appear to be the exception, allowing submariners to record their exercise information and GPS locations while on base – and to update their data from patrol once they return to port. It does not take a particularly savvy observer to piece the timeline together, Le Monde’s report notes.
The newspaper has been able to identify the approximate dates and duration of four nuclear patrols. Knowing the date of departure would allow an adversary to position sensors at the base exit then to track the nuclear submarines into the ocean, compromising the core of their mission.
According to the publication, more than 450 base personnel have used Strava over the past decade.
Submarines are considered a key component in a country’s nuclear deterrent, ensuring that its atomic arsenal can’t be eliminated by a surprise first strike. Paris has four Triomphant-class ballistic missile submarines, each carrying 16 missiles armed with multiple thermonuclear warheads. The French navy has maintained at least one “black boat” on ocean patrol since 1972.
