The Alizé was a low-wing monoplane of conventional configuration powered by a single Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engine.

Typical underwing stores included 68 mm (2.68 in) rocket pods or AS.12 wire-guided antiship missiles.

The Indian Navy operated the Alizé from shore bases and from the light carrier INS Vikrant.

A modernization program performed in the early 1980s refitted 28 of the aircraft to the Br.1050M standard, featuring improved Thomson-CSF Iguane radar as used on the Atlantique NG ocean-patrol aircraft, new OMEGA radio navigation gear, and a new ARAR 12 radar and radio location ("electronic support measures / ESM") system.

Later in the decade, they were also fitted with the Thomson-CSF TTD Optronique Chlio forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imaging sensor.

Despite the upgrades, by this time the Alizé was clearly not capable of hunting modern nuclear submarines, and so it was relegated to ocean surface patrol.

The Alizé was used operationally during the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia over Kosovo in early 1999, with the aircraft flying off the carrier Foch.