Officer Leaks Location of French Aircraft Carrier With Strava Run (bbc.com)
- Reference: 0181063544
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/03/20/2244207/officer-leaks-location-of-french-aircraft-carrier-with-strava-run
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9vdel17wqo
> A French officer has reportedly [2]revealed the location of an aircraft carrier deployed towards the Middle East after publicly registering a run on sports app Strava. French news outlet [3]Le Monde first reported the officer, referred to as Arthur, logged a 35-minute run on the app while exercising on the deck of aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle on 13 March. He used a smartwatch to record his run and upload the activity to the app, the paper said, creating a map that showed his location. [...] The location of the vessel was said by Le Monde to have been northwest of Cyprus, around 100km (62 miles) from the Turkish coast, with satellite images capturing the carrier and its escort.
A representative from the French Armed Forces said the officer's behavior "does not comply with current guidelines," which "sailors are regularly made aware of."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~schwit1
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9vdel17wqo
[3] https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2026/03/19/stravaleaks-le-porte-avions-charles-de-gaulle-localise-en-temps-reel-par-le-monde-grace-a-l-application-de-sport_6672445_3210.html
Not so difficult to locate (Score:2)
Unlike nuclear submarines, an aircraft carrier can be spotted thanks to satellites, and, anyway, it can also be followed from the port it left in France.
No it cannot dive to hide itself.
Re: (Score:2)
And what assets does current foe have that are capable of tracking an aircraft carrier on such journey in real time, and what is their current resource subscription situation for those assets?
Re: (Score:2)
Money
Re: (Score:3)
> And what assets does current foe have that are capable of tracking an aircraft carrier on such journey in real time, and what is their current resource subscription situation for those assets?
The main foe at the moment is Russia, and they surely know where the carrier is. If Iran is interested at all, they get the information from their allies in Russia.
Re:Not so difficult to locate (Score:5, Funny)
> it cannot dive to hide itself.
It can, but at most once.
Re:France should just surrender now (Score:4, Insightful)
Surrender to who? Iran or the US?
Re: France should just surrender now (Score:2)
Yes
Not just any sailor (Score:4, Insightful)
Just shows you even the stupid can become officer.
Because we've heard these tales before, it's not exactly new that fitness apps follow you around.
Artificial Intelligence vs. natural stupidity (Score:1)
This is probably the main reason why people can be fascinated by "Artificial Intelligence".
That being said, I guess it is probably not that difficult anyway to track the location of aircraft carriers using "simple' satellites that are above us for so many decades already.
Next question: Will there be an "intelligent" soldier doing the same exercise in a submarine?
Who says the military doesn't learn? (Score:2)
Well there is a data point. OPINT takes about eight years to propagate from [1]the army [theguardian.com] to the navy.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases
I don't buy it (Score:2)
He had WiFi or 4G on the aircraft carrier? I don't think so.
And if the Strava app uploaded the logged run later when it got connectivity at port or something, by then the ship was long gone.
Hard to hide (Score:2)
Hard to hide a giant freaking aircraft carrier crossing the ocean. Nothing was revealed that a motivat actor couldn't find out on their own.
This Story Has Issues (Score:2)
The primary issue with this story is that it is well known that countless apps have location tracking, both explicit and superstitious. It is also well known that ships crews have loose lips and frequently leak operational "secrets".
That's why shipboard internet access is restricted at sea. This is most especially true when any form of secrecy or stealth is desired.
Please recall the story form a few years ago where a Starlink had been secretly installed aboard ship and the crew was leaking operational secre
Addendum (Score:2)
Though I doubt the veracity of this particular story, I can certainly imagine that something like this will become a bigger problem in the near future when cellphones utilize satellite internet more heavily. Something that is already underway and developing rapidly.
Inquiring minds wanted to know (Score:2)
a. Has the officer beaten his current record on Strava?
b. Did he uninstall the app?
c. How large is this aircraft carrier? Can we send Dmitri to race against this guy?
But even worse things can happen. It only takes a drone to bring him a new pair of missi- running shoes, from AliBaba.
So what? (Score:2)
Does anyone seriously think that any country that might have an interest in the location of that ship doesn't already know exactly where it is?
Re: (Score:2)
This. Isn't the point of an Aircraft Carrier to establish dominance? It isnt a surprise attack vessel. When a carrier strike group moves into your neighborhood, you know. They want you to know.
Re: So what? (Score:2)
Do not make it easy for the enemy. Sure they probably know where the carrier is. But it costs them continuous effort. Effort they cannot spend on other things. Now add an entire navy to the list...
Re:So what? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes. Actors with interest here is Iran and its proxies, and their reconnaissance capabilities are exceedingly oversubscribed right now. Whatever access to reconnaissance data they still have, they're most certainly going to be very grateful for narrowing down the scope of the search.
The primary defense of the aircraft carrier is to hide at the sea, and stay highly mobile, making long range targeting by ballistics impossible. For those not in the know, most anti-ship ballistic missiles are targeted at an area, and fire up their radar only after they're quite a while into the descent, meaning you need to know approximate location of the carrier group for ballistic anti-shipping missiles to have any effect on them. Otherwise it just arrives in the area, and there's nothing within range of its radar because carrier group is long gone from last reconnaissance data. Or even worse, there's another group of vessels in the area missile locks on to and hits, and it has nothing to do with the conflict. Which Iran and its proxies have been doing for years.
So this not only put the carrier group in danger, it also put civilian shipping in the area in danger. Massive fuck up.
Re: (Score:2)
Good luck hiding something the size of an aircraft carrier in the busy meditterenean. Its probably seen by the the crews of dozens of ships every day.