diff --git a/.build/build-rat.xml b/.build/build-rat.xml
index 6a3d72e1ca..b31cb0b4ae 100644
--- a/.build/build-rat.xml
+++ b/.build/build-rat.xml
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@
                 <equals arg1="${git.success}" arg2="0"/>
             </not>
         </condition>
+    </target>
+
+    <target name="_rat_copy_versioned_files" depends="_build_ratinclude" unless="${rat.skip}">
         <copy file="build/.versioned_files" tofile="build/.ratinclude">
             <filterchain>
                 <linecontainsregexp>
@@ -44,7 +47,7 @@
         </copy>
     </target>
 
-    <target name="rat-check" depends="_build_ratinclude" unless="${rat.skip}" description="License checks on source" >
+    <target name="rat-check" depends="_rat_copy_versioned_files" unless="${rat.skip}" description="License checks on source" >
         <rat:report reportFile="${build.dir}/rat.txt">
             <fileset dir="." includesfile="build/.ratinclude">
                  <!-- Config files with not much creativity -->
diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c72c01af8f..54e73d71e9 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ Merged from 3.11:
  * Suppress CVE-2022-42003 and CVE-2022-42004 (CASSANDRA-17966)
  * Make LongBufferPoolTest insensitive to timing (CASSANDRA-16681)
 Merged from 3.0:
+ * Fix running Ant rat targets without git (CASSANDRA-17974)
  * Harden JMX by resolving beanshooter issues (CASSANDRA-17921)
  * Suppress CVE-2019-2684 (CASSANDRA-17965)
  * Fix auto-completing "WITH" when creating a materialized view (CASSANDRA-17879)