Minelayer

A minelayer is any warship, submarine, military aircraft or land vehicle deploying explosive mines.

Russian minelayers were highly efficient sinking the Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese War.

A few navies still have dedicated minelayers in commission, including those of South Korea, Poland, Sweden and Finland; countries with long, shallow coastlines where sea mines are most effective.

Other navies have plans to create improvised minelayers in times of war, for example by rolling sea-mines into the sea from the vehicle deck through the open aft doors of a Roll-on/roll-off ferry.

Beginning in World War II, military aircraft were used to deliver naval mines by dropping them, attached to a parachute.

In the Pacific, the US dropped thousands of mines in Japanese home waters, contributing to that country's defeat.

In Vietnam, rivers and coastal waters were extensively mined with a modified bomb called a destructor that proved very successful.