diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/1979-use-headbucket.yml b/changelogs/fragments/1979-use-headbucket.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d3f4a6af427
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/1979-use-headbucket.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - aws_ssm - use ``head_bucket`` to access bucket locations in foreign aws accounts (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.aws/pull/1987).
diff --git a/plugins/connection/aws_ssm.py b/plugins/connection/aws_ssm.py
index 5c2d6d57788..d8b07c41c4d 100644
--- a/plugins/connection/aws_ssm.py
+++ b/plugins/connection/aws_ssm.py
@@ -427,12 +427,11 @@ def _get_bucket_endpoint(self):
         )
         # Fetch the location of the bucket so we can open a client against the 'right' endpoint
         # This /should/ always work
-        bucket_location = tmp_s3_client.get_bucket_location(
+        head_bucket = tmp_s3_client.head_bucket(
             Bucket=(self.get_option("bucket_name")),
         )
-        if bucket_location["LocationConstraint"]:
-            bucket_region = bucket_location["LocationConstraint"]
-        else:
+        bucket_region = head_bucket.get("ResponseMetadata", {}).get("HTTPHeaders", {}).get("x-amz-bucket-region", None)
+        if bucket_region is None:
             bucket_region = "us-east-1"
 
         if self.get_option("bucket_endpoint_url"):