Officers and crew aboard a French nuclear submarine have accidentally blown their cover, as well as their location and schedule, by recording their runs and jogs on a fitness app. A nuclear submarine assigned to Russian patrol has risked leaking vital data such as location, status and patrol schedule to Moscow.
The mobile and smartwatch app in question is the Strava app, which allows its users to share their fitness activities and achievements online and monitor their progress around the world. The app has a feature that includes publishing data on a map with the exact location where the user completed their exercise or achieved their fitness goal.
The location where the mistake occurred was the Île Longue submarine base in Brest Harbor in Finistère, France. The base is reportedly home to four French nuclear submarines, each carrying 16 nuclear missiles whose explosive intensity is approximately a thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Photo Credit: X/@accomprime
Of the four nuclear submarines, named ‘Black Boats’, at least one of them has always been on patrol on a rotation basis since 1972. According to the doctrine they follow, called ‘sustainability at sea’, their role is to disappear in the ocean such that they are in a position to launch a nuclear attack anywhere in the world within seconds of the French President’s order. Be.
The base is home to approximately 2,000 military personnel and is a top secret military area in France. It is protected like a fort, with round-the-clock camera surveillance, constant land and sea surveillance by drones, biometric scanners at regular intervals. Mobile phones are banned in the area. They must be locked and placed in signal-proof locker facilities, which are available at check points throughout the base.
Despite such heavy security arrangements, a careless oversight led to the leakage of sensitive information. Reason – Smartwatches with third-party apps, used to keep health and fitness checks, can bypass security without ringing an alarm.
According to a report in the UK’s Daily Mail, an investigation following the leak revealed that over the past ten years, more than 450 Strava users – all from the French military – have been active in the top secret nuclear base.
In another report by French newspaper Le Monde, its journalists found that many military personnel did not even use pseudonyms or aliases, keeping their real identities public on fitness apps. Additionally, they also kept their profile public – effectively visible globally.
In one instance, an officer went running to the dock where nuclear submarines were parked. This was in January and February of 2023. He recorded these runs on 16 occasions on different dates. On February 3, 2023, he also recorded his timing and location on the app. After that his account went silent and his use of Strava disappeared from the radar for over a month. His activities on the app resumed on March 25 of the same year.
Similar cases were also recorded of two other officers who also recorded their fitness details on Strava on the same dates as the above mentioned officer. They also disappeared from radar between 3 February and 25 March that year. This made it clear that the three men had gone on patrol aboard a nuclear submarine between those dates.
Adding to the embarrassment, one official, while chatting on a fitness app upon his return, said, “It’s hard to get back into the game after being in a poo box for over two and a half months.” He posted the message with emojis of bubbles and a scuba diving mask.
According to Le Monde’s StravaLeaks investigation, the bodyguards of the French, American and Russian presidents also use the Strava fitness app, and the presidents’ movements and travels can be predicted and tracked through the bodyguards’ Strava accounts. Is.