Minelayer

Canadian sailors with a mine aboard the minelayer HMCS Sankaty off Halifax, Nova Scotia in World War II.

A minelayer is any warship, submarine, military aircraft or land vehicle deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines.[1] "Mine planting" was the term for installing controlled mines at predetermined positions in connection with coastal fortifications or harbor approaches that would be detonated by shore control when a ship was fixed as being within the mine's effective range.[2][3]

An army's special-purpose combat engineering vehicles used to lay landmines are sometimes called "minelayers".

  1. ^ "minelayer". Definitions from Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  2. ^ Chappel, Gordon. "Submarine Mine Defense of San Francisco Bay". Historic California Posts — Forts Under the Sea. California State Military Museum. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  3. ^ "Principle Armament – Mine Field". FortMiles.org. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2013.