The remainder are in reserve. In 1998 contracts were placed by an unnamed South American country and Brunei, the latter being the 23rd country to order Mistral systems. The basic assembly can be broken down into two 20 kg loads - the containerised missile and the pedestal mount with its associated equipment for carriage by the missile team commander and the gunner respectively. In operational use the system will normally be transported in a light vehicle to the deployment area where it will be manpacked to the firing site by the team. The missile is a slim two-stage cylindrical type with a booster motor to eject it from the launch tube and a sustainer rocket motor to accelerate it to its maximum speed of M2.5.
Flight control is exercised by movable canard control surfaces located in the weapon's front region.
The 3 kg HE fragmentation warhead uses tungsten balls to achieve increased penetration of the target surface and is fitted with both contact and proximity fuzes to ensure detonation. The Matra BAe Dynamics proximity fuze is an active laser type. The seeker's waveband operating region is believed to be in the area 3. 5 to 5 m. This increases the Mistral 's manoeuvring capabilities considerably during the terminal phase of the flight. In autonomous mode, the team commander is in charge of liaison with the section fire-control centre, identifying the target and ordering the engagement.