Crew of nuclear submarine gave away their position and patrol schedule ‘to Russia’ by using Strava fitness app

Crew members of a French nuclear submarine who recorded runs on the fitness app Strava are at risk of having their positions and patrol schedule leaked to Russia.

Strava allows members to share their sports activities online and includes a map showing the location where the user completed the exercise.

Île Longue in the port of Brest in Finistère is home to four nuclear submarines, each capable of carrying sixteen nuclear missiles, about a thousand times the power of the Hiroshima bomb.

Land and sea patrols by drones are carried out 24 hours a day to guarantee safety and more than 2,000 employees must identify themselves to enter.

Cell phones are prohibited and must be stored in lockers at various checkpoints on the base.

Despite the strict security surrounding the facility, users of the fitness app were still able to leave sensitive information.

Over the past ten years, more than 450 Strava users have been active within the walls of the compound.

Many of those users did not use pseudonyms and kept their profiles public, allowing journalists to do so Le Monde to discover the identity of people on the base.

Runs recorded by crew members at a French naval base were posted online on the fitness app Strava

A nuclear submarine leaves the port of Brest, where the l'Île Longue naval base is located

A nuclear submarine leaves the port of Brest, where the l’Île Longue naval base is located

Submarine crews monitoring their flights risk patrol schedules being leaked to foreign powers

Submarine crews monitoring their flights risk patrol schedules being leaked to foreign powers

An example was Paul (names and dates have been changed), who recorded sixteen activities in January 2023.

On February 3, 2023, he ran along the docks where the submarines are moored and recorded his times and locations on the app.

Then the next month his account went silent and he suddenly stopped using Strava.

He was not active again until March 25, 2023.

Similarly, Strava users Arthur and Charles also abruptly stopped their training on Strava after February 3 and resumed around March 25.

This suggested that all three men began a patrol aboard one of the submarines.

To confirm this, Paul also justified his disappearance from the app with the words: ‘It is difficult to start exercising again after more than two and a half months in the poop bin’.

He posted the attached message with emojis depicting bubbles and a diving mask.

A map of the Ile Longue naval base near Brest on the west coast of France

A map of the Ile Longue naval base near Brest on the west coast of France

The nuclear attack submarine "Emeraude" is depicted at Brest Naval Base, western France

The nuclear attack submarine “Emeraude” is pictured at the Brest Naval Base, western France

The French Navy told Le Monde that despite the ban on mobile phones, smart watches had been able to get past security, allowing the men to record their runs at the base.

The Navy acknowledged that there had been “negligence on the part of the personnel, which do not necessarily constitute deficiencies that could affect the activities of the operational base on Île Longue.”

Thanks to Strava activities, a foreign power could have anticipated the departure of a nuclear submarine.

The last races that Paul, Arthur and Charles completed before their departure took place on the quay where the submarines are moored, an area where access is strictly controlled and where sporting activities are rarer than on the athletics track.

Runs taking place on the docks could therefore mean the impending departure of one of the submarines.