diff --git a/bundle/src/assembly/resources/fed/ns3/ns3_installer.sh b/bundle/src/assembly/resources/fed/ns3/ns3_installer.sh
index 86f66faa7..deee5cfa2 100644
--- a/bundle/src/assembly/resources/fed/ns3/ns3_installer.sh
+++ b/bundle/src/assembly/resources/fed/ns3/ns3_installer.sh
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ arg_federate_file=""
 arg_integration_testing=false
 arg_make_parallel=""
 
-required_programs=( python3 gcc unzip tar lbzip2 )
+required_programs=( python3 gcc unzip tar lbzip2 protobuf-compiler )
 required_libraries=( "libprotobuf-dev >= 3.7.0" "libxml2-dev" "libsqlite3-dev" )
 
 ####### configurable parameters ##########