In December 2021, the UN Security Council extended the mandates of international naval missions combating piracy off Somalia’s coast including Operation Atalanta, Combined Task Force 151, and NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield but only for three months. Somalia’s UN envoy argued piracy has been absent for over four years and suggested it was time to end these missions. However, this overlooks a pressing maritime threat: illicit arms trafficking. Multiple U.S. Navy interdictions in 2021 and early 2022 seized fishing vessels and dhows carrying thousands of weapons, including rocket launchers, machine guns, and explosives precursors like urea fertilizer.