Stone was
laid down on 14 September 2018,
launched on 4 October 2019 by
Huntington Ingalls Industries and
christened on 29 February 2020. She will be expected to be commissioned in February 2021. Her
sea trials took place on 15 September in the
Gulf of Mexico and was successfully delivered to the Coast Guard on 10 November 2020. On 22 December 2020, she left
Pascagoula,
Mississippi for her first patrol, which was also her shakedown cruise, in the
South Atlantic. While in the South Atlantic, she participated Operation Southern Cross which is designed to counter illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing along with strengthening partnerships throughout the region. On January 29, 2021, it was announced that the
Stone would not make her scheduled stop in Argentina after visiting Guyana, Brazil, and Uruguay. The crew did not disembark in
Montevideo, due to concerns about the
COVID-19 pandemic. Before returning home, while off the coast of
Guyana she helped to interdict a suspected narcotic trafficker with
USCGC Raymond Evans (WPC-1110).
Evans took possession of the contraband and the traffickers. The recovered cocaine was estimated to be in excess of 970
kilograms. After recovering the drugs, she continued on her shakedown cruise covered over the course of 68 days before returning home.
Stone was commissioned on 19 March 2021, in her homeport of
North Charleston, S.C. ==See also==