diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 2e9df4d5e..16db1cec1 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -887,6 +887,27 @@
         <fail message="No executable defined. Call a more specific packaging/release target, or define an executable manually" if="no.executable.defined" />
     </target>
 
+    <target name="require.bcel">
+        <fileset id="bcel.jar" dir="${user.home}/.ant/lib">
+            <include name="bcel-*.jar" />
+        </fileset>
+        <pathconvert refid="bcel.jar" property="bcel.jar.installed" setonempty="false" />
+
+        <fileset id="ant.bcel.jar" dir="${user.home}/.ant/lib">
+            <include name="ant-apache-bcel-*.jar" />
+        </fileset>
+        <pathconvert refid="ant.bcel.jar" property="ant.bcel.jar.installed" setonempty="false" />
+
+        <condition property="bcel.installed">
+            <and>
+                <isset property="bcel.jar.installed" />
+                <isset property="ant.bcel.jar.installed" />
+            </and>
+        </condition>
+        <fail unless="bcel.installed"
+              message="Required bcel libraries for GATK packaging not installed in ${user.home}/.ant/lib/${line.separator}The bcel jar can be found in the lib directory of a GATK clone after compiling, and the ant-apache-bcel jar can be downloaded from here: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ant/ant-apache-bcel/1.6.5/ant-apache-bcel-1.6.5.jar${line.separator}Please copy these two jar files to ${user.home}/.ant/lib/" />
+    </target>
+
     <!-- Unzip all classes from their current locations and assemble them in a staging directory -->
     <target name="stage" description="stage files for distribution">
         <mkdir dir="${staging.dir}"/>
@@ -910,7 +931,7 @@
 
 
     <!-- Build a package consisting of all supporting files. Don't call this target directly. Call one of the specific packaging targets below -->
-    <target name="package" depends="require.clean,dist,stage,require.executable" description="bundle up an executable for distribution">
+    <target name="package" depends="require.clean,require.bcel,dist,stage,require.executable" description="bundle up an executable for distribution">
       <mkdir dir="${package.output.dir}" />
       <xslt destdir="${package.output.dir}" style="${package.xml.dir}/CreatePackager.xsl" useImplicitFileset="false">
           <flattenmapper/>