diff --git a/newt/downloader/downloader.go b/newt/downloader/downloader.go
index 2be323a14..c3a9bc530 100644
--- a/newt/downloader/downloader.go
+++ b/newt/downloader/downloader.go
@@ -88,6 +88,12 @@ type Downloader interface {
 	// the repo is in a "detached head" state.
 	CurrentBranch(path string) (string, error)
 
+	// Retrieves commit SHA for current HEAD
+	CurrentHead() string
+
+	// Retrieves full SHA for given commit
+	CommitSha(path string, commit string) (string, error)
+
 	// LatestRc finds the commit of the latest release candidate.  It looks
 	// for commits with names matching the base commit string, but with with
 	// "_rc#" inserted.  This is useful when a release candidate is being
@@ -588,6 +594,13 @@ func (gd *GenericDownloader) HashFor(path string,
 		return c.hash, nil
 	}
 
+	if len(commit) < 40 {
+		sha, err := gd.CommitSha(path, commit)
+		if err == nil {
+			commit = sha
+		}
+	}
+
 	return commit, nil
 }
 
@@ -664,6 +677,20 @@ func (gd *GenericDownloader) CurrentBranch(path string) (string, error) {
 	return branch, nil
 }
 
+func (gd *GenericDownloader) CurrentHead() string {
+	return gd.head
+}
+
+func (gd *GenericDownloader) CommitSha(path string, commit string) (string, error) {
+	cmd := []string{"rev-parse", commit}
+	o, err := executeGitCommand(path, cmd, true)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+
+	return strings.TrimSpace(string(o)), nil
+}
+
 // Fetches the downloader's origin remote if it hasn't been fetched yet during
 // this run.
 func (gd *GenericDownloader) cachedFetch(fn func() error) error {
diff --git a/newt/project/project.go b/newt/project/project.go
index 8c917714d..2bafb42fc 100644
--- a/newt/project/project.go
+++ b/newt/project/project.go
@@ -593,6 +593,11 @@ func (proj *Project) downloadRepositoryYmlFiles() error {
 					"External repository \"%s\" does not specify valid commit version (%s)",
 					r.Name(), ver.String())
 			}
+
+			// No need to fetch if requested commit is already checked out
+			if r.IsHeadCommit(ver.Commit) {
+				continue
+			}
 		}
 
 		if _, err := r.UpdateDesc(); err != nil {
diff --git a/newt/repo/version.go b/newt/repo/version.go
index b4aa09c5b..bc31af2aa 100644
--- a/newt/repo/version.go
+++ b/newt/repo/version.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 package repo
 
 import (
+	"mynewt.apache.org/newt/newt/downloader"
 	"strings"
 
 	log "github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
@@ -119,6 +120,19 @@ func (r *Repo) CommitFromVer(ver newtutil.RepoVersion) (string, error) {
 	return commit, nil
 }
 
+func (r *Repo) IsHeadCommit(commit string) bool {
+	ct, _ := r.downloader.CommitType(r.Path(), commit)
+
+	if ct != downloader.COMMIT_TYPE_HASH {
+		return false
+	}
+
+	head := r.downloader.CurrentHead()
+	sha, _ := r.downloader.CommitSha(r.Path(), commit)
+
+	return head == sha
+}
+
 func (r *Repo) VersionIsValid(ver newtutil.RepoVersion) bool {
 	if ver.Commit == "" {
 		_, err := r.CommitFromVer(ver)