The United States has delivered two refitted coastal minehunters to Taiwan to beef up country’s naval defense capacity. The USS Oriole and the USS Falcon vessels will improve the Taiwanese Navy's ability to locate and destroy naval mines used in sea blockades. The refurbished Osprey class minehunters were shipped to the southern city of Kaohsiung after nearly three years of efforts that included reactivating the ships and training personnel to crew them. The sale of the minehunters is part of a $6.4 billion arms deal between Washington and Taipei that also includes Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and communications equipment for Taiwan's F-16 fleet of fighter jets.