The Indian Navy’s Alizés equipped INAS 310, the squadron known as the Cobras, and were delivered from 1961. They operated from shore bases and from the light carrier INS Vikrant. Their first operation came almost at once: in December 1961 they flew maritime patrol and photographic reconnaissance during India’s seizure of Portuguese Goa. During the 1965 war with Pakistan they flew patrols off the west coast but saw no combat.

The 1971 war was different. Vikrant sailed into the Bay of Bengal with Sea Hawk fighter-bombers and Alizés, and the Alizés flew anti-submarine and surface patrols for the carrier group. One Alizé was shot down by a Pakistan Air Force F-104 Starfighter. The type’s numbers dwindled in the 1980s, and when Vikrant was rebuilt to operate Sea Harriers in 1987 the Alizés moved ashore. India retired them in 1991, replacing them with anti-submarine helicopters, and one is preserved at the Naval Aviation Museum in Goa.

The French Navy never had the money to replace its Alizés with a new carrier anti-submarine aircraft, so it kept upgrading them. In the mid-1960s thirty were modified to fire the US Mk 44 torpedo and the wire-guided AS.12 missile. In the early 1980s 28 were rebuilt to the ALM (Alizé Modernisé) standard with a Thomson-CSF Iguane pulse-compression radar, OMEGA navigation, new sonobuoy receivers, chaff and flare dispensers and a new radar-warning system. In the 1990s more were fitted with decoys, a new autopilot and avionics, and in 1996 and 1997 some received the Chlio infrared camera.

By then the Alizé could not realistically hunt nuclear submarines, and it became the eyes of the carrier group, watching surface shipping off Lebanon in the 1980s and later in the Persian Gulf. It flew from the Foch during NATO’s Kosovo campaign in spring 1999. The last carrier landing came on 27 June 2000, and the type was withdrawn on 15 September 2000 as the Foch was sold to Brazil. Airborne surveillance for the French carrier passed to the E-2C Hawkeye aboard the new Charles de Gaulle.

The internal bay under the fuselage was designed for a single homing torpedo, first the French L4 and later the American Mk 44 and Mk 46, or for depth charges; it could also take rescue containers or an extra 500-litre fuel tank. Underwing pylons carried depth charges, bombs, 68 mm rocket pods or two AS.12 wire-guided missiles for attacking surfaced submarines and small craft. Sonobuoys rode in the wing pods.

The crew sat in a short glazed cabin. The pilot was in front on the left, the navigator in front on the right handling navigation and acoustics, and the radar and sensor operator sat behind them. A fourth seat or a passenger could be fitted in the rear. The main undercarriage had twin wheels on each leg to spread the loads of carrier landings, and a yoke-type arrester hook was mounted under the rear fuselage.

• Br.965 Épaulard: the second Vultur prototype modified as a test aircraft for the Alizé concept, with a fixed radar under the fuselage.
• Br.1050 prototypes and pre-series: three prototypes, the third with the more powerful Dart chosen for production, followed by pre-series aircraft.
• Br.1050 production: 75 for the French Navy, 12 new aircraft for India, plus two ex-French aircraft for India.
• 1964–65 modification: about thirty aircraft cleared for the Mk 44 torpedo and AS.12 missile.
• ALM (Alizé Modernisé): 28 aircraft rebuilt in the early 1980s with Iguane radar, OMEGA navigation and new acoustics.
• ALH: 1990s standard with decoys, new autopilot and, on some aircraft, Chlio infrared sensor.

The Alizé was cheap by carrier-aviation standards: one engine, three crew and a small airframe. Its longevity was itself a cost decision, since France chose repeated upgrades over buying a new carrier anti-submarine aircraft. Against that, a turboprop working from salt-laden decks needed constant corrosion control, and the airframes accumulated very high hours; French sources commonly give a total of around 330,000 flying hours for the fleet. No per-hour figure has been published.