diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
index 4e81b8294..890b0830f 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
@@ -118,6 +118,10 @@ public class GATKArgumentCollection {
     @Input(fullName = "DBSNP", shortName = "D", doc = "DBSNP file", required = false)
     public String DBSNPFile = null;
 
+    @Element(required = false)
+    @Argument(fullName = "simplifyBAM", shortName = "simplifyBAM", doc = "If provided, output BAM files will be simplified to include just key reads for downstream variation discovery analyses (removing duplicates, PF-, non-primary reads), as well stripping all extended tags from the kept reads except the read group identifier", required = false)
+    public boolean simplifyBAM = false;
+
     /**
      * The override mechanism in the GATK, by default, populates the command-line arguments, then
      * the defaults from the walker annotations.  Unfortunately, walker annotations should be trumped
@@ -435,6 +439,9 @@ public class GATKArgumentCollection {
         if (enableLowMemorySharding != other.enableLowMemorySharding)
             return false;
 
+        if ( simplifyBAM != other.simplifyBAM )
+            return false;
+
         return true;
     }
 
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/storage/SAMFileWriterStorage.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/storage/SAMFileWriterStorage.java
index 03a95c30b..a3da3156c 100644
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/storage/SAMFileWriterStorage.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/storage/SAMFileWriterStorage.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import net.sf.samtools.util.RuntimeIOException;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.io.stubs.SAMFileWriterStub;
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.exceptions.UserException;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.sam.SimplifyingSAMFileWriter;
 
 /**
  * Provides temporary storage for SAMFileWriters.
@@ -81,6 +82,11 @@ public class SAMFileWriterStorage implements SAMFileWriter, Storage<SAMFileWrite
         }
         else
             throw new UserException("Unable to write to SAM file; neither a target file nor a stream has been specified");
+
+        // if we want to send the BAM file through the simplifying writer, wrap it here
+        if ( stub.simplifyBAM() ) {
+            this.writer = new SimplifyingSAMFileWriter(this.writer);
+        }
     }
 
     public SAMFileHeader getFileHeader() {
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/stubs/SAMFileWriterStub.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/stubs/SAMFileWriterStub.java
index 57c834fee..7d9908f82 100644
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/stubs/SAMFileWriterStub.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/io/stubs/SAMFileWriterStub.java
@@ -137,6 +137,10 @@ public class SAMFileWriterStub implements Stub<SAMFileWriter>, StingSAMFileWrite
         return samFile;
     }
 
+    public boolean simplifyBAM() {
+        return engine.getArguments().simplifyBAM;
+    }
+
     public OutputStream getSAMOutputStream() {
         return samOutputStream;
     }
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/sam/SimplifyingSAMFileWriter.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/sam/SimplifyingSAMFileWriter.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..df2010e8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/sam/SimplifyingSAMFileWriter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+package org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.sam;
+
+import net.sf.samtools.SAMFileHeader;
+import net.sf.samtools.SAMFileWriter;
+import net.sf.samtools.SAMRecord;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.iterators.StingSAMIterator;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.GenomeLoc;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.GenomeLocParser;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.exceptions.UserException;
+
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.NoSuchElementException;
+
+/**
+ * XXX
+ */
+public class SimplifyingSAMFileWriter implements SAMFileWriter {
+    final SAMFileWriter dest;
+
+    public SimplifyingSAMFileWriter(final SAMFileWriter finalDestination) {
+        this.dest = finalDestination;
+    }
+
+    public void addAlignment( SAMRecord read ) {
+        if ( keepRead(read) ) {
+            dest.addAlignment(simplifyRead(read));
+
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Retrieves the header to use when creating the new SAM file.
+     * @return header to use when creating the new SAM file.
+     */
+    public SAMFileHeader getFileHeader() {
+        return dest.getFileHeader();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @{inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public void close() {
+        dest.close();
+    }
+
+
+    public static final boolean keepRead(SAMRecord read) {
+        return ! excludeRead(read);
+    }
+
+    public static final boolean excludeRead(SAMRecord read) {
+        return read.getReadUnmappedFlag() || read.getReadFailsVendorQualityCheckFlag() || read.getDuplicateReadFlag() || read.getNotPrimaryAlignmentFlag();
+    }
+
+    public static final SAMRecord simplifyRead(SAMRecord read) {
+        // the only attribute we keep is the RG
+        Object rg = read.getAttribute("RG");
+        read.clearAttributes();
+        read.setAttribute("RG", rg);
+        return read;
+    }
+}