Minelayer Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines . Historically this has been carried out by ships , submarines and aircraft . Additionally , since World War I the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mine s . " Mine planting " was the term used 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 . Before World War I , mine ships were termed mine planter s generally . For example , in an address to the U . S . Navy ships of Mine Squadron One at Portland , England Admiral Sims used the term “ mine layer ” while the introduction speaks of the men assembled from the “ mine planters ” . During and after that war the term " mine planter " became particularly associated with defensive coastal fortifications . The term " minelayer " applied vessels deploying both defensive and offensive mine barrages and large scale sea mining . " Minelayer " lasted well past the last common use of " mine planter " in the late 1940s . An army ' s special - purpose combat engineer ing vehicles used to lay landmine s are sometimes called " minelayers " . Naval minelayers . The most common use of the term " minelayer " is a naval ship used for deploying sea mine s . In the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I , mines laid by the Ottoman Empire ' s Navy ' s " Nusret " sank , , and the French battleship " Bouvet " in the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915 . Russian minelayers were also efficient ; sinking the Japanese battleships " Hatsuse " and " Yashima " in 1904 during the Russo - Japanese War . In World War II , the British employed the Abdiel class minelayer s both as minelayers and as transports to isolated garrisons , such as Malta and Tobruk . Their combination of high speed ( up to 40 knots ) and carrying capacity was highly valued . The French used the same concept for the " Pluton " . A naval minelayer can vary considerably in size , from coastal boats of several hundred tonnes in displacement to destroyer - like ships of several thousand tonnes in displacement . Apart from their loads of sea mines , most would also carry other weapons for self - defense . Submarine s can also act as minelayers . The first submarine to be designed as such was the Russian submarine Krab . was also one such minelaying submarine . Although there are no modern submarine minelayers , mines sized to be deployed from a submarine ' s torpedo tubes , such as the Stonefish allow any submarine to function as a minelayer . In modern times , most navies worldwide no longer possess minelaying vessels ; the United States Navy , for example , uses aircraft to lay sea mines instead . Mines themselves have evolved from purely passive to active ; for example in the U . S . CAPTOR ( enCAPsulated TORpedo ) that sits as a mine until detecting a target upon which a torpedo is launched . A few navies still have dedicated minelayers in commission , including those of Turkey , South Korea , Norway , Sweden and Finland , countries with long , shallow coastlines where sea mines are most effective . Other navies have plans to create extemporised minelayers in times of war , for example by rolling sea - mines into sea from the vehicle deck through the open aft doors of a Roll - on / roll - off ferry . In 1984 the Libyan Navy was suspected of having mined the Red Sea a few kilometres south of the Suez Canal using the Ro - Ro ferry " Ghat " , other nations suspected of having similar wartime plans include Iran and North Korea . Aerial minelaying . Beginning in World War II , aircraft were used to deliver naval mines by dropping them , attached to a parachute . Germany , Britain , and the U . S . made significant use of aerial minelaying . A new type of magnetic mine dropped by a German aircraft in a campaign of mining the Thames Estuary in 1939 landed in a mudflat , where disposal experts determined how it worked , which allowed Britain to fashion appropriate mine countermeasure s . The RAF operations were codenamed " Gardening " . As well as mining the North Sea and approaches to German ports , mines were laid in the Danube River near Belgrade , Yugoslavia , starting on 8 April 1944 , to block the shipments of petroleum product s from the refineries at Ploeşti , Romania . In the Pacific , the U . S . dropped thousands of mines in Japanese home waters , contributing to that country ' s defeat . Aerial mining was also used in the Korean War and in Vietnam . In Vietnam , rivers and coastal waters were extensively mined with a modified bomb called a " destructor " that proved very successful . Landmine laying . Some examples of minelaying vehicles :