Based upon @jwmajors81 suggestion, I needed to pad the major version for a specific reason...
As we were already using the build-helper-maven-plugin, it is easy enough to get the major version by using the parse-version goal of the build helper. (we only needed 3 chars):
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.8</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>parse-version</id>
<goals>
<goal>parse-version</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>stage1--padNumber</id>
<goals>
<goal>regex-property</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<name>build.env.version.padded</name>
<value>${parsedVersion.majorVersion}</value>
<regex>^([\d]{0,})$</regex>
<replacement>00$1</replacement>
<failIfNoMatch>false</failIfNoMatch>
<failOnError>false</failOnError>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>stage2--leftTrimToXcharacters</id>
<goals>
<goal>regex-property</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<name>build.env.version.padded</name>
<value>${build.env.version.padded}</value>
<regex>^([\d]*)([\d]{3})$</regex>
<replacement>$2</replacement>
<failIfNoMatch>false</failIfNoMatch>
<failOnError>false</failOnError>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>