The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, the only nuclear powered carrier outside the U.S. Navy, is en route to the Mid-East as part of the French response to recent events in the region. As it is sailing into harm's way, security would understandably be high. The exact location of the ship would be classified.
Strava is a fitness app athletes use to record their activities running or cycling. It's very popular and can be used to allow athletes on training equipment paired with the app to compete with one another or share their individual results with friends or interested fans. Results can be published in near realtime.
The French officer that was getting in a 7 kilometer run on the deck of the ship is was a Strava user. The GPS coordinates of his run pinpointed the location of the flagship in real time. The location was confirmed with publicly available satellite photos.
A French armed forces spokesman said the reported incident did "not comply with the current instructions" and appropriate measures would be taken.
8 comments:
Once again security wasn't an afterthought. It wasn't thought of at all.
Plenty of US servicemen have compromised OpSec while using various apps during deployment.
Keel hauling?
When your ship spends most of its time welded to the pier it doesn't matter if your running app reports your location. I will also bet their officer evaluation process requires documenting a certain amount of running and other exercise each month via some app.
Finally, skimmers of all size have NO ability to disappear as soon as the nearest shore goes below the horizon with dozens (or more) of satellites overhead at all times.
Sigh... THIS is what happens with 'connected' apps.
Remember when the CPOs installed a Starlink dish on their LCS?
Yeah I dunno BP. America has enemies everywhere now. The Russians and Chinese know exactly where those ships are, 24/7/365. You can bet they’re passing such info off to their allies in the area.
The problem with carriers isn’t finding them. The real problem is the geopolitical fallout if you sink one. If Iran had sent the Ford to the bottom… there certainly WOULD be American boots on the ground and regime change would be guaranteed.
The battlefield has changed. There will never be company or brigade level surprise tactics or maneuvers ever again. But the good news is that- we can see them too.
Glad to hear your still alive Glen. Your site has been so quiet.
But you hit it on the head. Iran has been very careful in their return strikes to punish but not generate a "Remember the Maine" event. And it seems trying to stay below Israels nuclear threshold.
The "Guns of Navarone" sneak attacks under constant satellite ISR is likely to be smashed by drone barrages just like in Ukraine. I am praying someone who can say NO learned about the Ukraine lessons of drones' vs Infantry, unless we need a military version of the Boston Massacre to "generate support" for this "little war".
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