The US Coast Guard cutter Stone was formally welcomed into service as the US Coast Guard's newest national security cutter (NSC) during a commissioning ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday, March 19.
Stone is the ninth Legend-class NSC to be built for the coast guard by Huntington Ingalls Industries' (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division.
The 127-metre vessel was delivered to the coast guard on November 10, 2020. While in "pre-commissioned" status, it deployed to the South Atlantic to conduct counter-drug patrols and to support operations against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
One of Stone's notable operations prior to commissioning was the successful interdiction of 970 kilograms of cocaine on a suspect vessel in the Caribbean Sea off the Dominican Republic in early January 2021.
