diff --git a/release/tools/ec2-base.conf b/release/tools/ec2-base.conf
--- a/release/tools/ec2-base.conf
+++ b/release/tools/ec2-base.conf
@@ -4,11 +4,13 @@
 
 # Packages to install into the image we're creating.  In addition to packages
 # present on all EC2 AMIs, we install:
+# * amazon-ssm-agent (not enabled by default, but some users need to use
+# it on systems not connected to the internet),
 # * ec2-scripts, which provides a range of EC2ification startup scripts,
 # * firstboot-freebsd-update, to install security updates at first boot,
 # * firstboot-pkgs, to install packages at first boot, and
 # * isc-dhcp44-client, used for IPv6 network setup.
-export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} ec2-scripts \
+export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} amazon-ssm-agent ec2-scripts \
     firstboot-freebsd-update firstboot-pkgs isc-dhcp44-client"
 
 # Services to enable in rc.conf(5).
diff --git a/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf b/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf
--- a/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf
+++ b/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 . ${WORLDDIR}/release/tools/ec2.conf
 
 # Packages to install into the image we're creating.  In addition to packages
-# present on all EC2 AMIs, we install cloud-init.
-export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} net/cloud-init"
+# present on all EC2 AMIs, we install amazon-ssm-agent and cloud-init.
+export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} amazon-ssm-agent net/cloud-init"
 
 # Services to enable in rc.conf(5).
 export VM_RC_LIST="${VM_RC_LIST} cloudinit sshd"
diff --git a/release/tools/ec2.conf b/release/tools/ec2.conf
--- a/release/tools/ec2.conf
+++ b/release/tools/ec2.conf
@@ -1,11 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-# Packages which should be installed onto all EC2 AMIs:
+# Package which should be installed onto all EC2 AMIs:
 # * ebsnvme-id, which is very minimal and provides important EBS-specific
 # functionality,
-# * amazon-ssm-agent (not enabled by default, but some users need to use
-# it on systems not connected to the internet).
-export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} ebsnvme-id amazon-ssm-agent"
+export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} ebsnvme-id"
 
 # Services which should be enabled by default in rc.conf(5).
 export VM_RC_LIST="dev_aws_disk ntpd"