A contract covering the development and operational evaluation of Brevel was awarded in 1992. Complete Brevel systems with five air vehicles were supplied to the French and German armies in 1998 for operational trials and evaluation. A production contract for the German Army was placed in 1998 for eight Brevel Systems, each comprising two ground stations and 10 air vehicles.

STN Atlas is responsible for the air vehicle, which is a derivative of the STN Atlas

Toucan unmanned aerial vehicle. Matra BAe is responsible for the Brevel Ground

Control Station. Matra Cap Systems is responsible for the mission programming and image processing systems.

The Brevel system comprises a command, control and communications vehicle, a launch vehicle with five to seven air vehicles, a recovery vehicle, a maintenance vehicle and a datalink terminal.

The Brevel system can be ready for the air vehicle launch within thirty minutes of the ground vehicles reaching a launch site. A launch area of approximately 100 x 100 metres is required.

The flight and mission data can be programmed in the command vehicle and the data downloaded to the onboard flight control computer on the air vehicle. The flight data includes the automatic launch and recovery of the air vehicle. The flight operator can send flight and mission instructions to the air vehicle in flight via a single command uplink.

To prepare the air vehicle for launch, the wings are unfolded. An anti-icing system is incorporated into the wings for cold weather operation. The launch sequence initiates the ignition of a booster rocket which is jettisoned after launch. The air vehicle is propelled from a container launcher mounted on a flat bed truck.

Both the uplink command and the image data downlinks are highly robust against hostile jamming. The digital data links were developed by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and Matra Cap Systemes. The range of the datalinks from the datalink terminal to the air vehicle is more than 60 km at the minimum operational altitude of 300 m and more than 200 km at the maximum altitude of 3000 m. The control centre is capable of controlling two airborne air vehicles simultaneously.

The air vehicle's operating speed is 150 km per hour but can attain a maximum level speed of approximately 220 km/hour. The flight endurance is 6 hours and the

operating range is 120 km.

The air vehicle is equipped with an airbag and parachute recovery system.

A Zeiss-Eltro Optronic WBG 96 x 4 forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera is installed in the nose of the air vehicle. The FLIR system is a four gimbal 3 axes stabilised system, operating in the 8 to 10 micron waveband. Battlefield images are transmitted back to the ground datalink terminal in real time. The antennae are fitted on the top and rear edge of the upright tail fin. If the air vehicle is out of range of the ground terminal, a data recorder on the air vehicle records the image data, which can be transmitted when it is next in the range envelope.