diff --git a/cmd/kops/replace.go b/cmd/kops/replace.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8ddd92e50c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kops/replace.go
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+
+	"github.com/golang/glog"
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	"k8s.io/kops/cmd/kops/util"
+	"k8s.io/kops/util/pkg/vfs"
+
+	kopsapi "k8s.io/kops/pkg/apis/kops"
+	k8sapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api"
+	cmdutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/resource"
+)
+
+type UpdateOptions struct {
+	resource.FilenameOptions
+}
+
+func NewCmdReplace(f *util.Factory, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
+	options := &UpdateOptions{}
+
+	cmd := &cobra.Command{
+		Use:   "replace -f FILENAME",
+		Short: "Replace a resource by filename or stdin",
+		Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
+			if cmdutil.IsFilenameEmpty(options.Filenames) {
+				cmd.Help()
+				return
+			}
+
+			cmdutil.CheckErr(RunReplace(f, cmd, out, options))
+		},
+	}
+
+	cmd.Flags().StringSliceVarP(&options.Filenames, "filename", "f", options.Filenames, "Filename to use to replace the resource")
+	cmd.MarkFlagRequired("filename")
+
+	return cmd
+}
+
+func RunReplace(f *util.Factory, cmd *cobra.Command, out io.Writer, c *UpdateOptions) error {
+	clientset, err := f.Clientset()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	// Codecs provides access to encoding and decoding for the scheme
+	codecs := k8sapi.Codecs //serializer.NewCodecFactory(scheme)
+
+	codec := codecs.UniversalDecoder(kopsapi.SchemeGroupVersion)
+
+	for _, f := range c.Filenames {
+		contents, err := vfs.Context.ReadFile(f)
+		if err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("error reading file %q: %v", f, err)
+		}
+
+		o, gvk, err := codec.Decode(contents, nil, nil)
+		if err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("error parsing file %q: %v", f, err)
+		}
+
+		switch v := o.(type) {
+		case *kopsapi.Federation:
+			_, err = clientset.Federations().Update(v)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("error replacing federation: %v", err)
+			}
+
+		case *kopsapi.Cluster:
+			_, err = clientset.Clusters().Update(v)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("error replacing cluster: %v", err)
+			}
+
+		case *kopsapi.InstanceGroup:
+			clusterName := v.Labels[ClusterNameLabel]
+			if clusterName == "" {
+				return fmt.Errorf("must specify %q label with cluster name to replace instanceGroup", ClusterNameLabel)
+			}
+			_, err = clientset.InstanceGroups(clusterName).Update(v)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("error replacing instanceGroup: %v", err)
+			}
+
+		default:
+			glog.V(2).Infof("Type of object was %T", v)
+			return fmt.Errorf("Unhandled kind %q in %q", gvk, f)
+		}
+
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/cmd/kops/root.go b/cmd/kops/root.go
index 69740aa45c..36e0c73c01 100644
--- a/cmd/kops/root.go
+++ b/cmd/kops/root.go
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ func NewCmdRoot(f *util.Factory, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 	cmd.AddCommand(NewCmdCreate(f, out))
 	cmd.AddCommand(NewCmdEdit(f, out))
 	cmd.AddCommand(NewCmdUpdate(f, out))
+	cmd.AddCommand(NewCmdReplace(f, out))
 	cmd.AddCommand(NewCmdValidate(f, out))
 
 	return cmd