Officer reportedly leaks location of French aircraft carrier with Strava run

A French officer has reportedly revealed the location of an aircraft carrier deployed towards the Middle East after publicly registering a run on sports app Strava.

French news outlet 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 vessel is the main part of a carrier strike group recently deployed to the eastern Mediterranean by the French, the ministry of armed forces said, as tensions in the region continue due to the Iran war.

In a statement to AFP news agency, the French armed forces said the reported incident did "not comply with the current instructions" and appropriate measures would be taken if the report was true.

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.

BBC Verify was unable to find the route, though it was possible it was later deleted or the user's privacy settings were changed.

The ministry said the group led by the carrier was deployed "to protect French nationals, defend France's interests in the region, and support its partners and allies".

Aboard the vessel are 20 fighter jets, two surveillance aircraft and three helicopters.

The deployment is part of France's recent bolstering of its military presence in the Middle East, which French President Emmanuel Macron described as strictly "defensive".

This is not the first time an activity on the app has exposed sensitive details.

Le Monde previously reported runs shared by Macron's bodyguards jeopardised his location in several occasions, while Secret Service agents accompanying then-US President Joe Biden also shared their whereabouts on the app in 2024.

A similar report that year said the app showed bodyguards for Russian President Vladimir Putin at luxurious properties the Kremlin denies owning.

Another function on the app, its 'heatmap', has previously come under fire for sharing the location of exercise routes of military personnel in bases around the world.

The heatmaps visualise all public activity recorded of all its users around the globe - allowing users to zoom in and explore different parts of the world.

In 2018, the US military said it was examining the map after security concerns were raised.

A few years later, a disinformation watchdog said the app allowed suspicious figures to identify and track security personnel working at secretive bases in Israel.

San Francisco-based Strava uses a mobile phone's or fitness device's GPS to track exercise activity.

It has more than 195 million users in more than 185 countries, according to its website.