diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/ES815BitFlatVectorsFormat.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/ES815BitFlatVectorsFormat.java
index 659cc89bfe46d..de91833c99842 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/ES815BitFlatVectorsFormat.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/ES815BitFlatVectorsFormat.java
@@ -16,11 +16,11 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.index.SegmentReadState;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.SegmentWriteState;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.VectorSimilarityFunction;
-import org.apache.lucene.util.VectorUtil;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.hnsw.RandomAccessVectorValues;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.hnsw.RandomVectorScorer;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.hnsw.RandomVectorScorerSupplier;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.quantization.RandomAccessQuantizedByteVectorValues;
+import org.elasticsearch.script.field.vectors.ESVectorUtil;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ public RandomVectorScorer getRandomVectorScorer(
     }
 
     static float hammingScore(byte[] a, byte[] b) {
-        return ((a.length * Byte.SIZE) - VectorUtil.xorBitCount(a, b)) / (float) (a.length * Byte.SIZE);
+        return ((a.length * Byte.SIZE) - ESVectorUtil.xorBitCount(a, b)) / (float) (a.length * Byte.SIZE);
     }
 
     static class HammingVectorScorer extends RandomVectorScorer.AbstractRandomVectorScorer {
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteBinaryDenseVector.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteBinaryDenseVector.java
index f2ff8fbccd2fb..e5c2d6a370f12 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteBinaryDenseVector.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteBinaryDenseVector.java
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ public double l1Norm(List<Number> queryVector) {
 
     @Override
     public int hamming(byte[] queryVector) {
-        return VectorUtil.xorBitCount(queryVector, vectorValue);
+        return ESVectorUtil.xorBitCount(queryVector, vectorValue);
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteKnnDenseVector.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteKnnDenseVector.java
index e0ba032826aa1..0145eb3eae04b 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteKnnDenseVector.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ByteKnnDenseVector.java
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ public double l1Norm(List<Number> queryVector) {
 
     @Override
     public int hamming(byte[] queryVector) {
-        return VectorUtil.xorBitCount(queryVector, docVector);
+        return ESVectorUtil.xorBitCount(queryVector, docVector);
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ESVectorUtil.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ESVectorUtil.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..7d9542bccf357
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/field/vectors/ESVectorUtil.java
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright Elasticsearch B.V. and/or licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements. Licensed under the Elastic License
+ * 2.0 and the Server Side Public License, v 1; you may not use this file except
+ * in compliance with, at your election, the Elastic License 2.0 or the Server
+ * Side Public License, v 1.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.script.field.vectors;
+
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BitUtil;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.Constants;
+
+/**
+ * This class consists of a single utility method that provides XOR bit count computed over signed bytes.
+ * Remove this class when Lucene version > 9.11 is released, and replace with Lucene's VectorUtil directly.
+ */
+public class ESVectorUtil {
+
+    /**
+     * For xorBitCount we stride over the values as either 64-bits (long) or 32-bits (int) at a time.
+     * On ARM Long::bitCount is not vectorized, and therefore produces less than optimal code, when
+     * compared to Integer::bitCount. While Long::bitCount is optimal on x64.
+     */
+    static final boolean XOR_BIT_COUNT_STRIDE_AS_INT = Constants.OS_ARCH.equals("aarch64");
+
+    /**
+     * XOR bit count computed over signed bytes.
+     *
+     * @param a bytes containing a vector
+     * @param b bytes containing another vector, of the same dimension
+     * @return the value of the XOR bit count of the two vectors
+     */
+    public static int xorBitCount(byte[] a, byte[] b) {
+        if (a.length != b.length) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("vector dimensions differ: " + a.length + "!=" + b.length);
+        }
+        if (XOR_BIT_COUNT_STRIDE_AS_INT) {
+            return xorBitCountInt(a, b);
+        } else {
+            return xorBitCountLong(a, b);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /** XOR bit count striding over 4 bytes at a time. */
+    static int xorBitCountInt(byte[] a, byte[] b) {
+        int distance = 0, i = 0;
+        for (final int upperBound = a.length & -Integer.BYTES; i < upperBound; i += Integer.BYTES) {
+            distance += Integer.bitCount((int) BitUtil.VH_NATIVE_INT.get(a, i) ^ (int) BitUtil.VH_NATIVE_INT.get(b, i));
+        }
+        // tail:
+        for (; i < a.length; i++) {
+            distance += Integer.bitCount((a[i] ^ b[i]) & 0xFF);
+        }
+        return distance;
+    }
+
+    /** XOR bit count striding over 8 bytes at a time. */
+    static int xorBitCountLong(byte[] a, byte[] b) {
+        int distance = 0, i = 0;
+        for (final int upperBound = a.length & -Long.BYTES; i < upperBound; i += Long.BYTES) {
+            distance += Long.bitCount((long) BitUtil.VH_NATIVE_LONG.get(a, i) ^ (long) BitUtil.VH_NATIVE_LONG.get(b, i));
+        }
+        // tail:
+        for (; i < a.length; i++) {
+            distance += Integer.bitCount((a[i] ^ b[i]) & 0xFF);
+        }
+        return distance;
+    }
+
+    private ESVectorUtil() {}
+}