diff --git a/bin/update_submodules.sh b/bin/update_submodules.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9dcb9745849c01bbf61b9ffae92c5c7cc21a5a8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/update_submodules.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+git submodule update --init
diff --git a/bootstrap/etc/lofar20rc.sh b/bootstrap/etc/lofar20rc.sh
index e9e8ac326b32aa0130c98005e2f472457bb65f42..dd26d6df05ff731f4251035e97380c9ef9cebe1a 100755
--- a/bootstrap/etc/lofar20rc.sh
+++ b/bootstrap/etc/lofar20rc.sh
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@
 ABSOLUTE_PATH=$(realpath $(dirname ${BASH_SOURCE}))
 export LOFAR20_DIR=${1:-$(realpath ${ABSOLUTE_PATH}/../..)}
 
+if [ ! -f "${LOFAR20_DIR}/.git/hooks/post-checkout" ]; then
+  alias git="cp ${LOFAR20_DIR}/bin/update_submodules.sh ${LOFAR20_DIR}/.git/hooks/post-checkout; cp ${LOFAR20_DIR}/bin/update_submodules.sh ${LOFAR20_DIR}/.git/hooks/post-merge; unalias git; git"
+fi
+
 # This needs to be modified for a development environment.
 # Example:  ~/lofar2.0/tango
 # The current setting is for a production environment.