Pandur II is an improved version of the successful Pandur family, created by Steyr-Daimler-Puch.

The Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeu was sold to the American corporation General Dynamics in 2003 and became part of its European division under the name of General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr (GDELS-Steyr). When creating Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) it also included another European company that produces wheeled armored personnel carriers - the Swiss MOWAG. In fact, the two companies were competitors, although they were part of the same corporation. Due to the fact that the former director of Steyr-Daimler-Puch became GDELS director, the company initially focused on marketing the Pandur family. To successfully market the family has been updated, resulting in the emergence of Pandur II, which was offered in 6x6 and 8x8 configurations with these two vehicles sharing over 90 per cent common components.

Pandur II in 2005 won the Portuguese tender for the purchase of armored vehicles 8x8, and in 2006 - in a similar Czech tender. Initially, Portugal was ordered 264 vehicles, and the Czech Republic 234. However, the fulfillment of both contracts was accompanied by a large number of scandals, related both to anti-corruption proceedings and technical problems. As a result, in fact, Portugal supplied 188 Pandur II, and the Czech Republic - 107, of which 90 were assembled from car kits at the Czech VOP-025 armored repair plant.

In 2016, 34 Pandur II armored vehicles were ordered by the Austrian army.

By 2015, General Dynamics actually stopped efforts to promote Pandur II and sold the full rights to this vehicle to the Czech company Excalibur Army, which currently is part of the Czechoslovak group. Assembly Pandur II was organized at a specially created Tatra Defense Vehicle plant in Kopřivnice, also part of the Czechoslovak group. The assembly is carried out from the car kits supplied from Austria.

In 2015, the Excalibur Army contracted Indonesia for an undisclosed number of Pandur II vehicles at a total cost of $ 39 million. At the same time, a contract was signed with the Indonesian company PT Pindad to refine the vehicles by installing various weapons systems, as well as localizing production, starting with 2018, if Indonesia decides to continue procurement. The first 4 vehicles arrived in Indonesia in September 2017.

In early 2017, Tatra Defense Vehicle signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic to supply 20 Pandur II in various versions.

The Pandur II is powered by a Cummins ISLe HPCR series diesel engine developing 298 kW for the 6x6 version and 335 kW for the 8x8 version.

The engine is coupled to a ZF 6HP 602C fully automatic 6-gear transmission. Together with the 2 stage transfer gear (shiftable on the move) this gives the Pandur II a total of 12 gears. The maximum road speed is reached at 105 km/h. The hull floor of the Pandur covers and thus protects most of the power train components and steering linkages. This protects the mentioned components from being damaged from various obstacles that may occur when the vehicle operates in heavy terrain. For decreasing the turning diameter of the 8x8 version a steering brake has been installed which retards all curve-inner wheels when the steered wheels are fully turned in and vehicle velocity is sufficiently low.

• Single wheel suspension

• Two steered axles

• 100% locking differentials (highest tractive effort)

• ADM, providing automatic engage and disengage of all wheel drive and all differential lockings depending on driving conditions resulting in reduced tear and wear on driveline components, reduced training effort for the driver, increased safety, and superior off-road mobility.

• Low ground pressure and good performance on sand and soft terrain by means of a central tire inflation system (CTIS) ­ adjustment on the move

• All tires equipped with run-flat elements

• Hydrodynamic primary retarder and ventilated disc brakes on all wheels for maximum deceleration

• Anti-skid braking system

• Self-recovery winch

• High amphibian velocity and maneuverability by double impeller drives (jet-pods, which protect the impeller in heavy terrain operation). The jet-pod arrangement enables the vehicle to pivot when swimming

• Modular ballistic protection system capable of being upgraded for future ballistic protection systems (add-on armor)

• Mine protection (special hull design and components, double floor, mine protection crew seats)

• NBC protection (passive, overpressure or ventilated face masks)

• Spall liners reducing secondary effects of penetrating projectiles

• Fire detection and suppression system for the engine compartment

• Explosion detection and suppression system for the crew compartment

• Low silhouette

• Minimized acoustic and thermal imaging signature

• Low IR signature by use of easy to decontaminate CARC/IR camouflage painting

• Excellent vision from the vehicle under full armor protection by optimized arrangement of optical devices (episcopes) for driver and commander

• Large crew hatches which enable the personnel wearing protection vests

• Vehicle rear entrance can be implemented as double-door, single-door or ramp solution

• Passage of roads and bridges with low load capacity

• Large autonomy provided by high onboard fuel capacity and low fuel consumption of the engine

• Air transportability by tactical transport aircraft (e.g. C-130, C-160, An-12, An-70, A400M ...)

• Railway transport according to international standards (e.g. STANAG 2832)

• Road transport by heavy military trailer and semi-trailer

• Sea transport

• Tie-down and lifting provisions according to MIL-STD 209J

Due to the high payload, the considerable volume of the mission compartment and flexibility of the vehicle layout, the Pandur II 6x6 and 8x8 versions can be tailored to the requirements of a lot of different variants.