diff --git a/public/gatk-root/pom.xml b/public/gatk-root/pom.xml
index 456098bcd..b527a82ea 100644
--- a/public/gatk-root/pom.xml
+++ b/public/gatk-root/pom.xml
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@
         <test.listeners>org.testng.reporters.FailedReporter,org.testng.reporters.JUnitXMLReporter,org.broadinstitute.gatk.utils.TestNGTestTransformer,org.broadinstitute.gatk.utils.GATKTextReporter,org.uncommons.reportng.HTMLReporter</test.listeners>
 
         <!-- Version numbers for picard and htsjdk -->
-        <htsjdk.version>1.118.1556</htsjdk.version>
-        <picard.version>1.118.1521</picard.version>
+        <htsjdk.version>1.120.1620</htsjdk.version>
+        <picard.version>1.120.1579</picard.version>
     </properties>
 
     <!-- Dependency configuration (versions, etc.) -->
diff --git a/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java b/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
index be09c5879..05834f71b 100644
--- a/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
+++ b/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
@@ -416,6 +416,18 @@ public class GATKArgumentCollection {
               required = false)
     public boolean sitesOnlyVCF = false;
 
+    /**
+     * <p>The VCF specification permits missing records to be dropped from the end of FORMAT fields, so long as GT is always output.
+     * This option prevents GATK from performing that trimming.</p>
+     *
+     * <p>For example, given a FORMAT of <pre>GT:AD:DP:PL</pre>, GATK will by default emit <pre>./.</pre> for a variant with
+     * no reads present (ie, the AD, DP, and PL fields are trimmed).  If you specify -writeFullFormat, this record
+     * would be emitted as <pre>./.:.:.:.</pre></p>
+     */
+    @Argument(fullName = "never_trim_vcf_format_field", shortName = "writeFullFormat", doc = "Always output all the records in VCF FORMAT fields, even if some are missing",
+              required = false)
+    public boolean neverTrimVCFFormatField = false;
+
     @Hidden
     @Argument(fullName = "bcf", shortName = "bcf", doc = "Force BCF output, regardless of the file's extension",
               required = false)
diff --git a/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/io/stubs/VariantContextWriterStub.java b/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/io/stubs/VariantContextWriterStub.java
index e3bf0e4da..f40ede581 100644
--- a/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/io/stubs/VariantContextWriterStub.java
+++ b/public/gatk-tools-public/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/io/stubs/VariantContextWriterStub.java
@@ -108,6 +108,11 @@ public class VariantContextWriterStub implements Stub<VariantContextWriter>, Var
      */
     private boolean forceBCF = false;
 
+    /**
+     * Should we write all of the fields in the FORMAT field, even if missing fields could be trimmed?
+     */
+    private boolean writeFullFormatField = false;
+
     /**
      * Connects this stub with an external stream capable of serving the
      * requests of the consumer of this stub.
@@ -153,37 +158,37 @@ public class VariantContextWriterStub implements Stub<VariantContextWriter>, Var
     }
 
     /**
-     * Retrieves the output stearm to which to (ultimately) write.
+     * Retrieves the output stream to which to (ultimately) write.
      * @return The file.  Can be null if genotypeFile is not.
      */
     public OutputStream getOutputStream() {
         return genotypeStream;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Retrieves the output stearm to which to (ultimately) write.
-     * @return The file.  Can be null if genotypeFile is not.
-     */
     public boolean isCompressed() {
         return isCompressed;
     }
 
-    public void setCompressed(boolean compressed) {
+    public void setCompressed(final boolean compressed) {
         isCompressed = compressed;
     }
 
-    public void setSkipWritingCommandLineHeader(boolean skipWritingCommandLineHeader) {
+    public void setSkipWritingCommandLineHeader(final boolean skipWritingCommandLineHeader) {
         this.skipWritingCommandLineHeader = skipWritingCommandLineHeader;
     }
 
-    public void setDoNotWriteGenotypes(boolean doNotWriteGenotypes) {
+    public void setDoNotWriteGenotypes(final boolean doNotWriteGenotypes) {
         this.doNotWriteGenotypes = doNotWriteGenotypes;
     }
 
-    public void setForceBCF(boolean forceBCF) {
+    public void setForceBCF(final boolean forceBCF) {
         this.forceBCF = forceBCF;
     }
 
+    public void setWriteFullFormatField(final boolean writeFullFormatField) {
+        this.writeFullFormatField = writeFullFormatField;
+    }
+
     public IndexCreator getIndexCreator() {
         return indexCreator;
     }
@@ -202,11 +207,12 @@ public class VariantContextWriterStub implements Stub<VariantContextWriter>, Var
     }
 
     public EnumSet<Options> getWriterOptions(boolean indexOnTheFly) {
-        List<Options> options = new ArrayList<Options>();
+        final List<Options> options = new ArrayList<>();
 
         if ( doNotWriteGenotypes ) options.add(Options.DO_NOT_WRITE_GENOTYPES);
         if ( engine.lenientVCFProcessing() ) options.add(Options.ALLOW_MISSING_FIELDS_IN_HEADER);
         if ( indexOnTheFly) options.add(Options.INDEX_ON_THE_FLY);
+        if ( writeFullFormatField ) options.add(Options.WRITE_FULL_FORMAT_FIELD);
 
         if ( forceBCF || (getOutputFile() != null && VariantContextWriterFactory.isBCFOutput(getOutputFile())) )
             options.add(Options.FORCE_BCF);
@@ -235,7 +241,7 @@ public class VariantContextWriterStub implements Stub<VariantContextWriter>, Var
         setDoNotWriteGenotypes(argumentCollection.sitesOnlyVCF);
         setSkipWritingCommandLineHeader(argumentCollection.disableCommandLineInVCF);
         setForceBCF(argumentCollection.forceBCFOutput);
-
+        setWriteFullFormatField(argumentCollection.neverTrimVCFFormatField);
     }
 
     public void writeHeader(VCFHeader header) {
diff --git a/public/gatk-tools-public/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/EngineFeaturesIntegrationTest.java b/public/gatk-tools-public/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/EngineFeaturesIntegrationTest.java
index b8cea85e1..6596cf324 100644
--- a/public/gatk-tools-public/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/EngineFeaturesIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/public/gatk-tools-public/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/engine/EngineFeaturesIntegrationTest.java
@@ -716,9 +716,21 @@ public class EngineFeaturesIntegrationTest extends WalkerTest {
         executeTest("testVCFFeatures: "+args, spec);
     }
 
+    private void testVCFFormatHandling(final boolean writeFullFormat, final String md5) {
+        WalkerTestSpec spec = new WalkerTestSpec("-T SelectVariants -R " + b37KGReference +
+                " -V " + privateTestDir + "ILLUMINA.wex.broad_phase2_baseline.20111114.both.exome.genotypes.1000.vcf"
+                + " --no_cmdline_in_header -o %s "
+                + " --fullyDecode " //Without this parameter, the FORMAT fields will be emitted unchanged.  Oops
+                + (writeFullFormat ? "-writeFullFormat" : "") ,
+                1, Arrays.asList(md5));
+        executeTest("testVCFFormatHandling: "+(writeFullFormat ? "Untrimmed" : "Trimmed"), spec);
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testVCFWriterFeatures() {
         testVCFFeatures("--sites_only", "94bf1f2c0946e933515e4322323a5716");
         testVCFFeatures("--bcf", "03f2d6988f54a332da48803c78f9c4b3");
+        testVCFFormatHandling(true, "2b0fa660b0cef4b0f45a10febb453b6c");
+        testVCFFormatHandling(false, "5960311fdd9ee6db88587efaaf4055a0");
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/public/repo/picard/picard/1.118.1521/picard-1.118.1521.jar b/public/repo/picard/picard/1.120.1579/picard-1.120.1579.jar
similarity index 84%
rename from public/repo/picard/picard/1.118.1521/picard-1.118.1521.jar
rename to public/repo/picard/picard/1.120.1579/picard-1.120.1579.jar
index f82969cca..fa3fa36c0 100644
Binary files a/public/repo/picard/picard/1.118.1521/picard-1.118.1521.jar and b/public/repo/picard/picard/1.120.1579/picard-1.120.1579.jar differ
diff --git a/public/repo/picard/picard/1.118.1521/picard-1.118.1521.pom b/public/repo/picard/picard/1.120.1579/picard-1.120.1579.pom
similarity index 94%
rename from public/repo/picard/picard/1.118.1521/picard-1.118.1521.pom
rename to public/repo/picard/picard/1.120.1579/picard-1.120.1579.pom
index 0b1f7c775..cca997246 100644
--- a/public/repo/picard/picard/1.118.1521/picard-1.118.1521.pom
+++ b/public/repo/picard/picard/1.120.1579/picard-1.120.1579.pom
@@ -3,13 +3,13 @@
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>picard</groupId>
     <artifactId>picard</artifactId>
-    <version>1.118.1521</version>
+    <version>1.120.1579</version>
     <name>picard</name>
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>samtools</groupId>
             <artifactId>htsjdk</artifactId>
-            <version>1.118.1556</version>
+            <version>1.120.1620</version>
         </dependency>
         <!-- TODO: Picard is using a custom zip with just ant's BZip2 classes. See also: http://www.kohsuke.org/bzip2 -->
         <dependency>
diff --git a/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.118.1556/htsjdk-1.118.1556.jar b/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.120.1620/htsjdk-1.120.1620.jar
similarity index 81%
rename from public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.118.1556/htsjdk-1.118.1556.jar
rename to public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.120.1620/htsjdk-1.120.1620.jar
index d64d3ae29..8480ddc05 100644
Binary files a/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.118.1556/htsjdk-1.118.1556.jar and b/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.120.1620/htsjdk-1.120.1620.jar differ
diff --git a/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.118.1556/htsjdk-1.118.1556.pom b/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.120.1620/htsjdk-1.120.1620.pom
similarity index 96%
rename from public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.118.1556/htsjdk-1.118.1556.pom
rename to public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.120.1620/htsjdk-1.120.1620.pom
index e92f8b420..04ebef8a3 100644
--- a/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.118.1556/htsjdk-1.118.1556.pom
+++ b/public/repo/samtools/htsjdk/1.120.1620/htsjdk-1.120.1620.pom
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>samtools</groupId>
     <artifactId>htsjdk</artifactId>
-    <version>1.118.1556</version>
+    <version>1.120.1620</version>
     <name>htsjdk</name>
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>