diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 5a1ec08013c..176cb52c80e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -90,14 +90,9 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
             <artifactId>aws-java-sdk</artifactId>
-            <version>1.3.32</version>
+            <version>1.7.3</version>
             <scope>compile</scope>
             <exclusions>
-                <!-- We need to exclude httpclient, since it pulls the wrong version -->
-                <exclusion>
-                    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
-                    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
-                </exclusion>
                 <!-- jackson is optional -->
                 <exclusion>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
@@ -110,13 +105,6 @@
             </exclusions>
         </dependency>
 
-        <!-- We need to explicitly set the http client version since aws-java-sdk pulls the wrong version -->
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
-            <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
-            <version>4.1.1</version>
-        </dependency>
-
         <!-- We need to explicitly set the common codec version since aws-java-sdk pulls the wrong version -->
         <!-- See https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-cloud-aws/issues/29 -->
         <dependency>
diff --git a/src/main/assemblies/plugin.xml b/src/main/assemblies/plugin.xml
index 70f699258fa..532a360c2f8 100644
--- a/src/main/assemblies/plugin.xml
+++ b/src/main/assemblies/plugin.xml
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
             <useTransitiveFiltering>true</useTransitiveFiltering>
             <includes>
                 <include>com.amazonaws:aws-java-sdk</include>
-                <include>org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient</include>
                 <include>commons-codec:commons-codec</include>
             </includes>
         </dependencySet>