JS Tone

JS Tone (DE-234) is the sixth ship of the Abukuma-class destroyer escorts. She was commissioned on 8 February 1993.

Construction and career
Tone was laid down at Sumitomo Heavy Industries Tokyo Shipyard on 8 February 1991 and launched on 6 December 1991. She was commissioned on 8 February 1993 and deployed to Sasebo.

From 2–4 August 1999, Tone visited Busan, South Korea with the escort vessels JS Shirane and JS Setoyuki, and conducted the first Japan-Korea joint training in the East China Sea from the 4–5 August.

It was planned for the destroyer escort to be open to the public at Shibushi Port along with the escort vessels JS Sendai, JS Sawakaze, and the transport vessel JS Ōsumi at the Kanoya Air Festival held from 19 to 20 May 2001, but Fukuejima a Chinese Navy's ice-breaking information gathering ship sailing offshore was canceled due to tracking and monitoring. After leaving Sasebo on 2 October, the same year, she engaged in warning and surveillance activities for the US Navy amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD-2).

Around 5:30 pm on 16 February 2016, the Chinese Navy's East Sea Fleet sailed 85 km east-northeast of Taneshima from the Pacific Ocean to the East China Sea. The frigate CHINESE FRIGATE Yantai, spy ship CHINESE SPY SHIP Tianlangxing and supply ship CHINESE SUPPLY SHIP Honghu were discovered together by P-3C aircraft belonging to the 5th Air Group and the support ship JS Genkai. After that, four ships were spotted heading west through the Ōsumi Strait. On 25 December, the Joint Staff Office of the Ministry of Defense announced that Tone was in the waters of the central East China Sea at around 4 pm on the 24th of the same month, with the Chinese Navy aircraft carrier CHINESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Liaoning, three missile destroyers and three frigate ships, and one supply ship, visually confirming the aircraft carrier's presence. This is the first time that the Maritime Self-Defense Force has visually confirmed the aircraft carrier of the Chinese Navy.