Originally designed in 2010 to meet an Australian Defence Force (ADF) requirement for a light armoured patrol vehicle to replace some of its Land Rover Perentie variants.

[3] It is intended to undertake a range of mission profiles, including troop movement, command and control, electronic warfare, liaison, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Key criteria for the project included: off-road mobility, integrated vehicle electronic architecture, substantial payloads, high levels of protection against land mines, improvised explosive devices and ballistic weapons, while being light enough to be airlifted by military helicopters.

[20] Some of the suppressed elements of the report were released in 2021 following a freedom of information request, and included material stating that the Department of Defence had been unable to demonstrate that the Hawkei represented value for money compared to the JLTV.

[29] Thales developed an interim solution with the ABS modulator on every Hawkei changed every ten months on a sample fleet of 125 vehicles.

[30] In July 2024, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy and Brigadier John-Paul Ouvrier announced that Thales had resolved the Hawkei's ABS issues and that there would be a remediation program to install the fixes.

The load bed is designed to accommodate four 1000mm × 1200mm (40" x 48") NATO standard military pallets or a single tricon (one-third ISO 20 ft) container.

[34][37] Dual cab with a crew of four to six, various equipment options including force protection radar, surveillance and communications systems.