There were 40 (some sources state 52) of these vehicles built by the now Rheinmetall Landsysteme (previously Thyssen Henschel) between 1964 and 1965 and these remain in service with the Mexican Army.

The NIMDA company of Israel has modernised a single example of the HWK 11 APC with the original petrol power pack replaced by a new one consisting of a Model 6V-53 Detroit Diesel developing 210 hp coupled to an Allison Transmission TX-100 automatic transmission. This gives the HWK 11 a maximum speed of 60 km/h and a maximum range of 400 km.

Recent information has indicated that the complete fleet of Mexican HWK 11 vehicles has been upgraded. These vehicles now have a distinct exhaust pipe on the right side of the hull.

Some of these vehicles have recently been upgraded and fitted with French one-person manually-operated turrets, armed with a 7.62 mm machine gun, which were previously fitted to Nexter Systems (previously Giat Industries) AMX VCI Infantry combat vehicles. These turrets are also installed on many of the ex-Belgian Army AMX VCI full-tracked vehicles also in service with Mexico. A total of 401 AMX VCIs were supplied by the Belgian company SABIEX between 1994 and 1996.

It has recently been disclosed that the vehicles have been fitted with some parts of the M113, such as wheels, engine and lights. It is possible that SABIEX was involved in the upgrade of these vehicles.