The French Army was looking for a light reconnaissance vehicle, intended to work with the AMX-10 RC "wheeled tank", the Hotchkiss M201 jeep being obsolete when compared with the Soviet BRDM-2 armoured car.

Before its selection by the French armed forces in 1985, the Panhard model was ordered by the Mexican Army in 1984.

The VBL, sold abroad as the ULTRAV M-11 has been produced at Marolles-en-Hurepoix, 30 km (19 mi) south of Paris.

[3] The VBL has been used in many peacekeeping operations of the French Army, notably in Lebanon,[25] Bosnia,[26] Rwanda[16] and Kosovo.

[27] On 13 March 1985, the French contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in Beirut received three VBLs: one used on a static post, another as a liaison vehicle and the last one kept in reserve.

[28] The VBL was also often seen in the Siege of Sarajevo, due to the contribution of the French Army to the Blue Helmets in Yugoslavia.

It was used as a means of transport by the main commanders of the UN forces, including General Lewis MacKenzie,[26] earning the nickname "Sarajevo Taxi".

[30] In other missions, a troop of three VBLs of the régiment d'infanterie-chars de marine in Rwanda was tasked to make contact with the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the civilian population during the Opération Turquoise,[16] and in Kosovo, the operational requirements of the liaison mission led to the development of the Petit Véhicule Protégé program to supplement the VBL.

[40] In this operation, the Greek military police company, tasked with traffic regulation on the Pristina-Skopje road, was equipped with VBLs.

In Rwanda, the Forces Armées Rwandaises used their VBLs against the Rwandan Patriotic Front during the Rwandan Civil War,[43] with the country's reconnaissance squadron (Escadron de Reconnaissance) having been trained by French advisors to use MILAN ATGMs as well as VBLs.

[45] In Nigeria, the Nigerian Army used the Panhard VBL as part of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

[48] Across the Atlantic, the Mexican VBLs faced the Zapatista Army of National Liberation during the Chiapas conflict.

The Greek VBLs are similar to the ones of the French Army, with short and long chassis, some with PL-127 ring-mount or with MILAN missiles.

[53] Gabon ordered in 1985 twelve VBLs for its presidential guard, one with an Elta radar, the others with a 12.7 machine gun on a CTM-105 mount or with an AA-52.

[57] Qatar ordered sixteen VBLs, in three versions (standard with FN MAG, CTM-105 and MILAN) to equip a recce squadron.

[59] The Kuwait Ministry of Interior ordered twenty VBL Mk 2 for its special forces in 2008.