Naval Mine - Wikipedia

5/16/24, 12:30 AM Naval mine - Wikipedia
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device
placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships
or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are
deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by
the approach of, or contact with, any vessel or a
particular vessel type, akin to anti-infantry or anti-
vehicle mines. Naval mines can be used offensively,
to hamper enemy shipping movements or lock
vessels into a harbour; or defensively, to protect
friendly vessels and create "safe" zones. Mines allow
the minelaying force commander to concentrate
warships or defensive assets in mine-free areas
giving the adversary three choices: undertake an
expensive and time-consuming minesweeping Polish wz. 08/39 contact mine. The protuberances
near the top of the mine, here with their protective
effort, accept the casualties of challenging the
covers, are called Hertz horns, and these trigger
minefield, or use the unmined waters where the
the mine's detonation when a ship bumps into
greatest concentration of enemy firepower will be them.
encountered.[1]
Although international law requires signatory nations to

declare mined areas, precise locations remain secret, and non-
complying individuals might not disclose minelaying. While
mines threaten only those who choose to traverse waters that
may be mined, the possibility of activating a mine is a powerful
disincentive to shipping. In the absence of effective measures to
limit each mine's lifespan, the hazard to shipping can remain An explosion of a naval mine
long after the war in which the mines were laid is over. Unless
detonated by a parallel time fuze at the end of their useful life,
naval mines need to be found and dismantled after the end of hostilities; an often prolonged,
costly, and hazardous task.
Modern mines containing high explosives detonated by complex electronic fuze mechanisms are
much more effective than early gunpowder mines requiring physical ignition. Mines may be placed
by aircraft, ships, submarines, or individual swimmers and boatmen. Minesweeping is the practice
of the removal of explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper
using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an
aircraft made for that purpose. There are also mines that release a homing torpedo rather than
explode themselves.
Description
Mines can be laid in many ways: by purpose-built minelayers, refitted ships, submarines, or
aircraft—and even by dropping them into a harbour by hand. They can be inexpensive: some
variants can cost as little as US $2,000, though more sophisticated mines can cost millions of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_mine 1/32
dollars, be equipped with several kinds of sensors, and deliver a warhead by rocket or torpedo.
Their flexibility and cost-effectiveness make mines attractive to the

less powerful belligerent in asymmetric warfare. The cost of producing
and laying a mine is usually between 0.5% and 10% of the cost of
removing it, and it can take up to 200 times as long to clear a
minefield as to lay it. Parts of some World War II naval minefields still
exist because they are too extensive and expensive to clear.[2] Some
1940s-era mines may remain dangerous for many years.[3]
Mines have been employed as offensive or defensive weapons in

rivers, lakes, estuaries, seas, and oceans, but they can also be used as
tools of psychological warfare. Offensive mines are placed in enemy
waters, outside harbours, and across important shipping routes to sink
British Mk 14 sea mine
both merchant and military vessels. Defensive minefields safeguard
key stretches of coast from enemy ships and submarines, forcing them
into more easily defended areas, or keeping them away from sensitive ones.
Shipowners are reluctant to send their ships through known minefields. Port authorities may
attempt to clear a mined area, but those without effective minesweeping equipment may cease
using the area. Transit of a mined area will be attempted only when strategic interests outweigh
potential losses. The decision-makers' perception of the minefield is a critical factor. Minefields
designed for psychological effect are usually placed on trade routes to stop ships from reaching an
enemy nation. They are often spread thinly, to create an impression of minefields existing across
large areas. A single mine inserted strategically on a shipping route can stop maritime movements
for days while the entire area is swept. A mine's capability to sink ships makes it a credible threat,
but minefields work more on the mind than on ships.[4]
International law, specifically the Eighth Hague Convention of 1907, requires nations to declare
when they mine an area, to make it easier for civil shipping to avoid the mines. The warnings do
not have to be specific; for example, during World War II, Britain declared simply that it had
mined the English Channel, North Sea and French coast.
History
Early use
Naval mines were first invented by Chinese innovators of Imperial China and were described in
thorough detail by the early Ming dynasty artillery officer Jiao Yu, in his 14th-century military
treatise known as the Huolongjing.[5] Chinese records tell of naval explosives in the 16th century,
used to fight against Japanese pirates (wokou). This kind of naval mine was loaded in a wooden
box, sealed with putty. General Qi Jiguang made several timed, drifting explosives, to harass
Japanese pirate ships.[6] The Tiangong Kaiwu (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) treatise,
written by Song Yingxing in 1637, describes naval mines with a ripcord pulled by hidden
ambushers located on the nearby shore who rotated a steel wheel flint mechanism to produce
sparks and ignite the fuse of the naval mine.[7] Although this is the rotating steel wheel's first use in
naval mines, Jiao Yu described their use for land mines in the 14th century.[8]
The first plan for a sea mine in the West was by Ralph Rabbards, who
presented his design to Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1574.[7] The
Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel was employed in the Office of
Ordnance by King Charles I of England to make weapons, including
the failed "floating petard".[9] Weapons of this type were apparently
tried by the English at the Siege of La Rochelle in 1627.[10]
American David Bushnell developed the

first American naval mine, for use against
the British in the American War of
Independence.[11] It was a watertight keg
filled with gunpowder that was floated
toward the enemy, detonated by a A 14th-century illustration of
a naval mine and page
sparking mechanism if it struck a ship. It
description from the
was used on the Delaware River as a drift Huolongjing
mine, destroying a small boat near its
intended target, a British warship.[12]
The 19th century

David Bushnell’s mines
The 1804 Raid on Boulogne made
destroying a British ship in
1777 extensive use of explosive devices
designed by inventor Robert Fulton. The
'torpedo-catamaran' was a coffer-like
device balanced on two wooden floats and steered by a man with a
paddle. Weighted with lead so as to ride low in the water, the operator
was further disguised by wearing dark clothes and a black cap.[13] His
task was to approach the French ship, hook the torpedo to the anchor
cable and, having activated the device by removing a pin, remove the
paddles and escape before the torpedo detonated.[14] Also to be
deployed were large numbers of casks filled with gunpowder, ballast
and combustible balls. They would float in on the tide and on washing
up against an enemy's hull, explode.[14] Also included in the force were Infernal machines in the
several fireships, carrying 40 barrels of gunpowder and rigged to Potomac River in 1861
explode by a clockwork mechanism.[14] during the American Civil
War, sketch by Alfred Waud
In 1812, Russian engineer Pavel Shilling exploded an underwater mine
using an electrical circuit. In 1842 Samuel Colt used an electric
detonator to destroy a moving vessel to demonstrate an underwater mine of his own design to the
United States Navy and President John Tyler. However, opposition from former president John
Quincy Adams, scuttled the project as "not fair and honest warfare".[15] In 1854, during the
unsuccessful attempt of the Anglo-French (101 warships) fleet to seize the Kronstadt fortress,
British steamships HMS Merlin (9 June 1855, the first successful mining in history), HMS Vulture
and HMS Firefly suffered damage due to the underwater explosions of Russian naval mines.
Russian naval specialists set more than 1,500 naval mines, or infernal machines, designed by
Moritz von Jacobi and by Immanuel Nobel,[16] in the Gulf of Finland during the Crimean War of
1853–1856. The mining of Vulcan led to the world's first minesweeping operation.[17][18] During
the next 72 hours, 33 mines were swept.[19]
The Jacobi mine was designed by German-born, Russian engineer Jacobi, in 1853. The mine was
tied to the sea bottom by an anchor. A cable connected it to a galvanic cell which powered it from
the shore, the power of its explosive charge was equal to 14 kg (31 lb) of black powder. In the
summer of 1853, the production of the mine was approved by the Committee for Mines of the
Ministry of War of the Russian Empire. In 1854, 60 Jacobi mines were laid in the vicinity of the
Forts Pavel and Alexander (Kronstadt), to deter the British Baltic Fleet from attacking them. It
gradually phased out its direct competitor the Nobel mine on the insistence of Admiral Fyodor
Litke. The Nobel mines were bought from Swedish industrialist Immanuel Nobel who had entered
into collusion with the Russian head of navy Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov. Despite their high
cost (100 Russian rubles) the Nobel mines proved to be faulty, exploding while being laid, failing to
explode or detaching from their wires, and drifting uncontrollably, at least 70 of them were
subsequently disarmed by the British. In 1855, 301 more Jacobi mines were laid around Krostadt
and Lisy Nos. British ships did not dare to approach them.[20]
In the 19th century, mines were called torpedoes, a name probably conferred by Robert Fulton
after the torpedo fish, which gives powerful electric shocks. A spar torpedo was a mine attached to
a long pole and detonated when the ship carrying it rammed another one and withdrew a safe
distance. The submarine H. L. Hunley used one to sink USS Housatonic on 17 February 1864. A
Harvey torpedo was a type of floating mine towed alongside a ship and was briefly in service in the
Royal Navy in the 1870s. Other "torpedoes" were attached to ships or propelled themselves. One
such weapon called the Whitehead torpedo after its inventor, caused the word "torpedo" to apply
to self-propelled underwater missiles as well as to static devices. These mobile devices were also
known as "fish torpedoes".
The American Civil War of 1861–1865 also saw the successful use of mines. The first ship sunk by a
mine, USS Cairo, foundered in 1862 in the Yazoo River. Rear Admiral David Farragut's
famous/apocryphal command during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, "Damn the torpedoes, full
speed ahead!" refers to a minefield laid at Mobile, Alabama.
After 1865 the United States adopted the mine as its primary weapon for coastal defense. In the
decade following 1868, Major Henry Larcom Abbot carried out a lengthy set of experiments to
design and test moored mines that could be exploded on contact or be detonated at will as enemy
shipping passed near them. This initial development of mines in the United States took place
under the purview of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which trained officers and men in their
use at the Engineer School of Application at Willets Point, New York (later named Fort Totten). In
1901 underwater minefields became the responsibility of the US Army's Artillery Corps, and in
1907 this was a founding responsibility of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps.[21]
The Imperial Russian Navy, a pioneer in mine warfare, successfully deployed mines against the
Ottoman Navy during both the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878).[22]
During the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), the Peruvian Navy, at a time when the Chilean
squadron was blockading the Peruvian ports, formed a brigade of torpedo boats under the
command of the frigate captain Leopoldo Sánchez Calderón and the Peruvian engineer Manuel
Cuadros, who perfected the naval torpedo or mine system to be electrically activated when the
cargo weight was lifted. This is how, on July 3, 1880, in front of the port of Callao, the gunned
transport Loa flies when capturing a sloop mined by the Peruvians. A similar fate occurred with
the gunboat schooner Covadonga in front of the port of Chancay, on September 13, 1880, which
having captured and checked a beautiful boat, it exploded when hoisting it on its side.[23]
During the Battle of Tamsui (1884), in the Keelung Campaign of the Sino-French War, Chinese
forces in Taiwan under Liu Mingchuan took measures to reinforce Tamsui against the French; they
planted nine torpedo mines in the river and blocked the entrance.[24]
Early 20th century

During the Boxer Rebellion, Imperial Chinese forces deployed a command-detonated mine field at
the mouth of the Hai River before the Dagu forts, to prevent the western Allied forces from sending
ships to attack.[25][26]
The next major use of mines was during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Two mines blew
up when the Petropavlovsk struck them near Port Arthur, sending the holed vessel to the bottom
and killing the fleet commander, Admiral Stepan Makarov, and most of his crew in the process.
The toll inflicted by mines was not confined to the Russians, however. The Japanese Navy lost two
battleships, four cruisers, two destroyers and a torpedo-boat to offensively laid mines during the
war. Most famously, on 15 May 1904, the Russian minelayer Amur planted a 50-mine minefield off
Port Arthur and succeeded in sinking the Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima.
Following the end of the Russo-Japanese War, several nations attempted to have mines banned as
weapons of war at the Hague Peace Conference (1907).[22]
Many early mines were fragile and dangerous to handle, as they contained glass containers filled
with nitroglycerin or mechanical devices that activated a blast upon tipping. Several mine-laying
ships were destroyed when their cargo exploded.[27]
Beginning around the start of the 20th century, submarine mines played a major role in the
defense of U.S. harbours against enemy attacks as part of the Endicott and Taft Programs. The
mines employed were controlled mines, anchored to the bottoms of the harbours, and detonated
under control from large mine casemates onshore.
During World War I, mines were used extensively to defend coasts, coastal shipping, ports and
naval bases around the globe. The Germans laid mines in shipping lanes to sink merchant and
naval vessels serving Britain. The Allies targeted the German U-boats in the Strait of Dover and the
Hebrides. In an attempt to seal up the northern exits of the North Sea, the Allies developed the
North Sea Mine Barrage. During a period of five months from June 1918, almost 70,000 mines
were laid spanning the North Sea's northern exits. The total number of mines laid in the North Sea,
the British East Coast, Straits of Dover, and Heligoland Bight is estimated at 190,000 and the total
number during the whole of WWI was 235,000 sea mines.[28] Clearing the barrage after the war
took 82 ships and five months, working around the clock.[29] It was also during World War I, that
the British hospital ship, HMHS Britannic, became the largest vessel ever sunk by a naval mine.
The Britannic was the sister ship of the RMS Titanic, and the RMS Olympic.[30]
World War II
During World War II, the U-boat fleet, which dominated much of the battle of the Atlantic, was
small at the beginning of the war and much of the early action by German forces involved mining
convoy routes and ports around Britain. German submarines also operated in the Mediterranean
Sea, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the U.S. coast.
Initially, contact mines (requiring a ship to physically strike a mine to

detonate it) were employed, usually tethered at the end of a cable just
below the surface of the water. Contact mines usually blew a hole in
ships' hulls. By the beginning of World War II, most nations had
developed mines that could be dropped from aircraft, some of which
floated on the surface, making it possible to lay them in enemy
harbours. The use of dredging and nets was effective against this type
of mine, but this consumed valuable time and resources and required
harbours to be closed.
Later, some ships survived mine blasts, limping into port with buckled
plates and broken backs. This appeared to be due to a new type of
mine, detecting ships by their proximity to the mine (an influence
mine) and detonating at a distance, causing damage with the shock
A contact mine being
wave of the explosion. Ships that had successfully run the gantlet of deployed from the German
the Atlantic crossing were sometimes destroyed entering freshly minelayer Hansestadt
cleared British harbours. More shipping was being lost than could be Danzig
replaced, and Churchill ordered the intact recovery of one of these new
mines to be of the highest priority.
The British experienced a stroke of luck in November 1939,

when a German mine was dropped from an aircraft onto the
mudflats off Shoeburyness during low tide. Additionally, the
land belonged to the army and a base with men and workshops
was at hand. Experts were dispatched from HMS Vernon to
investigate the mine. The Royal Navy knew that mines could
use magnetic sensors, Britain having developed magnetic
mines in World War I, so everyone removed all metal,
including their buttons, and made tools of non-magnetic
The towed, electric cables of
brass.[31] They disarmed the mine and rushed it to the labs at Double-L, magnetic–minesweeping
HMS Vernon, where scientists discovered that the mine had a gear being deployed behind a Royal
magnetic arming mechanism. A large ferrous object passing Navy minesweeper
through the Earth's magnetic field will concentrate the field
through it, due to its magnetic permeability; the mine's
detector was designed to trigger as a ship passed over when the Earth's magnetic field was
concentrated in the ship and away from the mine. The mine detected this loss of the magnetic field
which caused it to detonate. The mechanism had an adjustable sensitivity, calibrated in milligauss.
From this data, known methods were used to clear these mines.
Early methods included the use of large electromagnets
dragged behind ships or below low-flying aircraft (a number of
older bombers like the Vickers Wellington were used for this).
Both of these methods had the disadvantage of "sweeping" only
a small strip. A better solution was found in the "Double-L
Sweep"[32] using electrical cables dragged behind ships that
passed large pulses of current through the seawater. This
A Vickers Wellington fitted with a
created a large magnetic field and swept the entire area
DWI, magnetic mine exploder,
Ismailia, Egypt
between the two ships. The older methods continued to be used in smaller areas. The Suez Canal
continued to be swept by aircraft, for instance.
While these methods were useful for clearing mines from local ports, they were of little or no use
for enemy-controlled areas. These were typically visited by warships, and the majority of the fleet
then underwent a massive degaussing process, where their hulls had a slight "south" bias induced
into them which offset the concentration-effect almost to zero.
Initially, major warships and large troopships had a copper degaussing coil fitted around the
perimeter of the hull, energized by the ship's electrical system whenever in suspected magnetic-
mined waters. Some of the first to be so fitted were the carrier HMS Ark Royal and the liners
RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth. It was a photo of one of these liners in New York
harbour, showing the degaussing coil, which revealed to German Naval Intelligence the fact that
the British were using degaussing methods to combat their magnetic mines.[33] This was felt to be
impractical for smaller warships and merchant vessels, mainly because the ships lacked the
generating capacity to energise such a coil. It was found that "wiping" a current-carrying cable up
and down a ship's hull[34] temporarily canceled the ships' magnetic signature sufficiently to nullify
the threat. This started in late 1939, and by 1940 merchant vessels and the smaller British warships
were largely immune for a few months at a time until they once again built up a field.
The cruiser HMS Belfast is just one example of a ship that was struck by a magnetic mine during
this time. On 21 November 1939, a mine broke her keel, which damaged her engine and boiler
rooms, as well as injuring 46 men, with one man later dying from his injuries. She was towed to
Rosyth for repairs. Incidents like this resulted in many of the boats that sailed to Dunkirk being
degaussed in a marathon four-day effort by degaussing stations.[35]
The Allies and Germany deployed acoustic mines in World War

II, against which even wooden-hulled ships (in particular
minesweepers) remained vulnerable.[36] Japan developed sonic
generators to sweep these; the gear was not ready by war's
end.[36] The primary method Japan used was small air-
delivered bombs. This was profligate and ineffectual; used
against acoustic mines at Penang, 200 bombs were needed to
detonate just 13 mines.[36]
The Finnish minelayer Ruotsinsalmi
The Germans developed a pressure-activated mine and lays naval mines in the Gulf of
planned to deploy it as well, but they saved it for later use when Finland during the Continuation War
it became clear the British had defeated the magnetic system.
The U.S. also deployed these, adding "counters" which would
allow a variable number of ships to pass unharmed before detonating.[36] This made them a great
deal harder to sweep.[36]
Mining campaigns could have devastating consequences. The U.S. effort against Japan, for
instance, closed major ports, such as Hiroshima, for days,[37] and by the end of the Pacific War had
cut the amount of freight passing through Kobe–Yokohama by 90%.[37]
When the war ended, more than 25,000 U.S.-laid mines were still in place, and the Navy proved
unable to sweep them all, limiting efforts to critical areas.[38] After sweeping for almost a year, in
May 1946, the Navy abandoned the effort with 13,000 mines still unswept.[38] Over the next thirty
years, more than 500 minesweepers (of a variety of types) were damaged or sunk clearing
them.[38]
The U.S. began adding delay counters to their magnetic mines in June 1945.[39]
Cold War era

Since World War II, mines have damaged 14 United States
Navy ships, whereas air and missile attacks have damaged four.
During the Korean War, mines laid by North Korean forces
caused 70% of the casualties suffered by U.S. naval vessels and
caused 4 sinkings.[40]
During the Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, the belligerents

mined several areas of the Persian Gulf and nearby waters. On
In 1988, an Iranian M-08 mine made
24 July 1987, the supertanker SS Bridgeton was mined by Iran
a 25-foot (8 m) hole in the hull of the
near Farsi Island. On 14 April 1988, USS Samuel B. Roberts frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts,
struck an Iranian mine in the central Persian Gulf shipping forcing the ship to seek temporary
lane, wounding 10 sailors. repairs in a dry dock in Dubai, UAE.
In the summer of 1984, magnetic sea mines damaged at least

19 ships in the Red Sea. The U.S. concluded Libya was probably responsible for the minelaying.[41]
In response the U.S., Britain, France, and three other nations[42] launched Operation Intense
Look, a minesweeping operation in the Red Sea involving more than 46 ships.[43]
On the orders of the Reagan administration, the CIA mined Nicaragua's Sandino port in 1984 in
support of the Contra terrorist group.[44] A Soviet tanker was among the ships damaged by these
mines.[45] In 1986, in the case of Nicaragua v. United States, the International Court of Justice
ruled that this mining was a violation of international law.
Post Cold War

During the Gulf War, Iraqi naval mines severely damaged USS Princeton and USS Tripoli.[46]
When the war concluded, eight countries conducted clearance operations.[42]
Houthi forces in the Yemeni Civil War have made frequent use of naval mines, laying over 150 in
the Red Sea throughout the conflict.[47]
In the first month of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately
employing drifting mines in the Black Sea area. Around the same time, Turkish and Romanian
military diving teams were involved in defusing operations, when stray mines were spotted near
the coasts of these countries. London P&I Club issued a warning to freight ships in the area,
advising them to "maintain lookouts for mines and pay careful attention to local navigation
warnings".[48] Ukrainian forces have mined "from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea which banks the
critical city of Odesa." [49]
Types
Naval mines may be classified into three major groups; contact,

remote and influence mines.
Contact mines
The earliest mines were usually of this type. They are still used
today, as they are extremely low cost compared to any other
anti-ship weapon and are effective, both as a psychological Types of naval mines:
weapon and as a method to sink enemy ships. Contact mines A-underwater, B-bottom, SS-
need to be touched by the target before they detonate, limiting submarine. 1-drifting mine, 2-drifting
the damage to the direct effects of the explosion and usually mine, 3-moored mine, 4-moored
affecting only the vessel that triggers them. mine (short wire), 5-bottom mines,
6-torpedo mine/CAPTOR mine, 7-
Early mines had mechanical mechanisms to detonate them, but rising mine
these were superseded in the 1870s by the "Hertz horn" (or
"chemical horn"), which was found to work reliably even after
the mine had been in the sea for several years. The mine's upper half is studded with hollow lead
protuberances, each containing a glass vial filled with sulfuric acid. When a ship's hull crushes the
metal horn, it cracks the vial inside it, allowing the acid to run down a tube and into a lead–acid
battery which until then contained no acid electrolyte. This energizes the battery, which detonates
the explosive.[50]
Earlier forms of the detonator employed a vial of sulfuric acid surrounded by a mixture of
potassium perchlorate and sugar. When the vial was crushed, the acid ignited the perchlorate-
sugar mix, and the resulting flame ignited the gunpowder charge.[51]
During the initial period of World War I, the Royal Navy used contact mines in the English
Channel and later in large areas of the North Sea to hinder patrols by German submarines. Later,
the American antenna mine was widely used because submarines could be at any depth from the
surface to the seabed. This type of mine had a copper wire attached to a buoy that floated above the
explosive charge which was weighted to the seabed with a steel cable. If a submarine's steel hull
touched the copper wire, the slight voltage change caused by contact between two dissimilar metals
was amplified and detonated the explosives.[50]
Limpet mines
Limpet mines are a special form of contact mine that are manually attached to the target by
magnets and remain in place. They are named because of the similarity to the limpet, a mollusk.
Moored contact mines

Generally, this type of mine is set to float just below the surface of the water or as deep as five
meters. A steel cable connecting the mine to an anchor on the seabed prevents it from drifting
away. The explosive and detonating mechanism is contained in a buoyant metal or plastic shell.
The depth below the surface at which the mine floats can be set so that only deep draft vessels such
as aircraft carriers, battleships or large cargo ships are at risk, saving the mine from being used on
a less valuable target. In littoral waters it is important to ensure that the mine does not become
visible when the sea level falls at low tide, so the cable length is adjusted to take account of tides.
During WWII there were mines that could be moored in 300 m (980 ft)-deep water.
Floating mines typically have a mass of around 200 kg

(440 lb), including 80 kg (180 lb) of explosives e.g. TNT, minol
or amatol.[52]
Moored contact mines with plummet

A special form of moored contact mines are those equipped
with a plummet. When the mine is launched (1), the mine with
the anchor floats first and the lead plummet sinks from it (2). A German contact mine laid in
In doing so, the plummet unwinds a wire, the deep line, which Australian waters during World War
is used to set the depth of the mine below the water surface II
before it is launched (3). When the deep line has been
unwound to a set length, the anchor is flooded and the mine is
released from the anchor (4). The anchor begins to sink and the
mooring cable unwinds until the plummet reaches the sea floor
(5). Triggered by the decreasing tension on the deep line, the
mooring cable is clamped. The anchor continues sinking down
to the bottom of the sea, pulling the mine below the water
surface to a depth equal to the length of the deep line (6). Thus,
even without knowing the exact seafloor depth, an exact depth
of the mine below the water surface can be set, limited only by
the maximum length of the mooring cable. Sequence of laying a moored
contact mine with a plummet
Drifting contact mines

Drifting mines were occasionally used during World War I and World War II. However, they were
more feared than effective. Sometimes floating mines break from their moorings and become
drifting mines; modern mines are designed to deactivate in this event. After several years at sea,
the deactivation mechanism might not function as intended and the mines may remain live.
Admiral Jellicoe's British fleet did not pursue and destroy the outnumbered German High Seas
Fleet when it turned away at the Battle of Jutland because he thought they were leading him into a
trap: he believed it possible that the Germans were either leaving floating mines in their wake, or
were drawing him towards submarines, although neither of these was the case.
After World War I the drifting contact mine was banned, but was occasionally used during World
War II. The drifting mines were much harder to remove than tethered mines after the war, and
they caused about the same damage to both sides.[53]
Churchill promoted "Operation Royal Marine" in 1940 and again in 1944 where floating mines
were put into the Rhine in France to float down the river, becoming active after a time calculated to
be long enough to reach German territory.
Remotely controlled mines

Frequently used in combination with coastal artillery and hydrophones, controlled mines (or
command detonation mines) can be in place in peacetime, which is a huge advantage in blocking
important shipping routes. The mines can usually be turned into "normal" mines with a switch
(which prevents the enemy from simply capturing the controlling station and deactivating the
mines), detonated on a signal or be allowed to detonate on their own. The earliest ones were
developed around 1812 by Robert Fulton. The first remotely controlled mines were moored mines
used in the American Civil War, detonated electrically from shore. They were considered superior
to contact mines because they did not put friendly shipping at risk.[54] The extensive American
fortifications program initiated by the Board of Fortifications in 1885 included remotely controlled
mines, which were emplaced or in reserve from the 1890s until the end of World War II.[55]
Modern examples usually weigh 200 kg (440 lb), including 80 kg (180 lb) of explosives (TNT or
torpex).
Influence mines
These mines are triggered by the influence of a ship or submarine,
rather than direct contact. Such mines incorporate electronic sensors
designed to detect the presence of a vessel and detonate when it comes
within the blast range of the warhead. The fuses on such mines may
incorporate one or more of the following sensors: magnetic, passive
acoustic or water pressure displacement caused by the proximity of a
vessel.[56]
First used during WWI, their use became more general in WWII. The
sophistication of influence mine fuses has increased considerably over
the years as first transistors and then microprocessors have been
incorporated into designs. Simple magnetic sensors have been
superseded by total-field magnetometers. Whereas early magnetic
German parachute-retarded
mine fuses would respond only to changes in a single component of a
magnetic mine. Dropped by
target vessel's magnetic field, a total field magnetometer responds to
Luftwaffe bomber during
changes in the magnitude of the total background field (thus enabling WWII and landed on the
it to better detect even degaussed ships). Similarly, the original ground. Fuse mechanisms
broadband hydrophones of 1940s acoustic mines (which operate on are visible
the integrated volume of all frequencies) have been replaced by
narrow-band sensors which are much more sensitive and selective.
Mines can now be programmed to listen for highly specific acoustic signatures (e.g. a gas turbine
powerplant or cavitation sounds from a particular design of propeller) and ignore all others. The
sophistication of modern electronic mine fuzes incorporating these digital signal processing
capabilities makes it much more difficult to detonate the mine with electronic countermeasures
because several sensors working together (e.g. magnetic, passive acoustic and water pressure)
allow it to ignore signals which are not recognised as being the unique signature of an intended
target vessel.[57]
Modern influence mines such as the BAE Stonefish are computerised, with all the programmability
this implies, such as the ability to quickly load new acoustic signatures into fuses, or program them
to detect a single, highly distinctive target signature. In this way, a mine with a passive acoustic
fuze can be programmed to ignore all friendly vessels and small enemy vessels, only detonating
when a very large enemy target passes over it. Alternatively, the mine can be programmed
specifically to ignore all surface vessels regardless of size and exclusively target submarines.
Even as far back as WWII it was possible to incorporate a "ship counter" function in mine fuzes.
This might set the mine to ignore the first two ships passing over it (which could be minesweepers
deliberately trying to trigger mines) but detonate when the third ship passes overhead, which could
be a high-value target such as an aircraft carrier or oil tanker. Even though modern mines are
generally powered by a long life lithium battery, it is important to conserve power because they
may need to remain active for months or even years. For this reason, most influence mines are
designed to remain in a semi-dormant state until an unpowered (e.g. deflection of a mu-metal
needle) or low-powered sensor detects the possible presence of a vessel, at which point the mine
fuze powers up fully and the passive acoustic sensors will begin to operate for some minutes. It is
possible to program computerised mines to delay activation for days or weeks after being laid.
Similarly, they can be programmed to self-destruct or render themselves safe after a preset period
of time. Generally, the more sophisticated the mine design, the more likely it is to have some form
of anti-handling device to hinder clearance by divers or remotely piloted submersibles.[57][58]
Moored mines
The moored mine is the backbone of modern mine systems. They are deployed where water is too
deep for bottom mines. They can use several kinds of instruments to detect an enemy, usually a
combination of acoustic, magnetic and pressure sensors, or more sophisticated optical shadows or
electro potential sensors. These cost many times more than contact mines. Moored mines are
effective against most kinds of ships. As they are cheaper than other anti-ship weapons they can be
deployed in large numbers, making them useful area denial or "channelizing" weapons. Moored
mines usually have lifetimes of more than 10 years, and some almost unlimited. These mines
usually weigh 200 kg (440 lb), including 80 kg (180 lb) of explosives (RDX). In excess of 150 kg
(330 lb) of explosives the mine becomes inefficient, as it becomes too large to handle and the extra
explosives add little to the mine's effectiveness.
Bottom mines
Bottom mines (sometimes called ground mines) are used when the water is no more than 60
meters (200 feet) deep or when mining for submarines down to around 200 meters (660 feet).
They are much harder to detect and sweep, and can carry a much larger warhead than a moored
mine. Bottom mines commonly use multiple types of sensors, which are less sensitive to
sweeping.[58][59]
These mines usually weigh between 150 and 1,500 kg (330 and 3,310 lb), including between 125
and 1,400 kg (276 and 3,086 lb) of explosives.[60]
Unusual mines
Several specialized mines have been developed for other purposes than the common minefield.
Bouquet mine
The bouquet mine is a single anchor attached to several floating mines. It is designed so that when
one mine is swept or detonated, another takes its place. It is a very sensitive construction and lacks
reliability.
Anti-sweep mine
The anti-sweep mine is a very small mine (40 kg (88 lb) warhead) with as small a floating device as
possible. When the wire of a mine sweep hits the anchor wire of the mine, it drags the anchor wire
along with it, pulling the mine down into contact with the sweeping wire. That detonates the mine
and cuts the sweeping wire. They are very cheap and usually used in combination with other mines
in a minefield to make sweeping more difficult. One type is the Mark 23 used by the United States
during World War II.
Oscillating mine
The mine is hydrostatically controlled to maintain a pre-set depth below the water's surface
independently of the rise and fall of the tide.
Ascending mine
The ascending mine is a floating distance mine that may cut its mooring or in some other way float
higher when it detects a target. It lets a single floating mine cover a much larger depth range.
Homing mines
These are mines containing a moving weapon as a warhead,
either a torpedo or a rocket.
Rocket mine
A Russian invention, the rocket mine is a bottom distance mine
that fires a homing high-speed rocket (not torpedo) upwards
towards the target. It is intended to allow a bottom mine to
A CAPTOR mine being loaded onto
attack surface ships as well as submarines from a greater
a B-52 Stratofortress at Loring Air
depth. One type is the Te-1 rocket propelled mine. Force Base
Torpedo mine
A torpedo mine is a self-propelled variety, able to lie in wait for a target and then pursue it e.g. the
Mark 60 CAPTOR. Generally, torpedo mines incorporate computerised acoustic and magnetic
fuzes. The U.S. Mark 24 "mine", code-named Fido, was actually an ASW homing torpedo. The
mine designation was disinformation to conceal its function.
Mobile mine
The mine is propelled to its intended position by propulsion equipment such as a torpedo. After
reaching its destination, it sinks to the seabed and operates like a standard mine. It differs from the
homing mine in that its mobile stage is set before it lies in wait, rather than as part of the attacking
phase.
One such design is the Mk 67 submarine-launched mobile mine[61] (which is based on a Mark 37
torpedo), capable of traveling as far as 16 km (10 mi) through or into a channel, harbour, shallow
water area, and other zones which would normally be inaccessible to craft laying the device. After
reaching the target area they sink to the sea bed and act like conventionally laid influence mines.
Nuclear mine
During the Cold War, a test was conducted with a naval mine fitted with tactical nuclear warheads
for the "Baker" shot of Operation Crossroads. This weapon was experimental and never went into
production.[62] There have been some reports that North Korea may be developing a nuclear
mine.[63]The Seabed Arms Control Treaty prohibits the placement of nuclear weapons on the
seabed beyond a 12-mile coast zone.
Daisy-chained mine
This comprises two moored, floating contact mines which are tethered together by a length of steel
cable or chain. Typically, each mine is situated approximately 18 m (60 ft) away from its neighbor,
and each floats a few meters below the surface of the ocean. When the target ship hits the steel
cable, the mines on either side are drawn down the side of the ship's hull, exploding on contact. In
this manner it is almost impossible for target ships to pass safely between two individually moored
mines. Daisy-chained mines are a very simple concept which was used during World War II. The
first prototype of the Daisy-chained mine and the first combat use came in Finland, 1939.[64]
Dummy mine
Plastic drums filled with sand or concrete are periodically rolled off the side of ships as real mines
are laid in large mine-fields. These inexpensive false targets (designed to be of a similar shape and
size as genuine mines) are intended to slow down the process of mine clearance: a mine-hunter is
forced to investigate each suspicious sonar contact on the sea bed, whether it is real or not. Often a
maker of naval mines will provide both training and dummy versions of their mines.[65]
Mine laying
Historically several methods were used to lay mines. During
WWI and WWII, the Germans used U-boats to lay mines
around the UK. In WWII, aircraft came into favour for mine
laying with one of the largest examples being the mining of the
Japanese sea routes in Operation Starvation.
Laying a minefield is a relatively fast process with specialized

ships, which is today the most common method. These
Captured Iranian mine laying ship,
minelayers can carry several thousand mines and manoeuvre
Iran Ajr (left), a converted Japanese-
with high precision. The mines are dropped at predefined built landing craft, 1987.
intervals into the water behind the ship. Each mine is recorded
for later clearing, but it is not unusual for these records to be
lost together with the ships. Therefore, many countries demand that all mining operations be
planned on land and records kept so that the mines can later be recovered more easily.[66]
Other methods to lay minefields include:
Converted merchant ships – rolled or slid down ramps

Aircraft – descent to the water is slowed by a parachute
Submarines – launched from torpedo tubes or deployed from specialized mine racks on the
sides of the submarine
Combat boats – rolled off the side of the boat
Camouflaged boats – masquerading as fishing boats
Dropping from the shore – typically smaller, shallow-water mines
Attack divers – smaller shallow-water mines
In some cases, mines are automatically activated upon contact with

the water. In others, a safety lanyard is pulled (one end attached to the
rail of a ship, aircraft or torpedo tube) which starts an automatic timer
countdown before the arming process is complete. Typically, the
automatic safety-arming process takes some minutes to complete.
This allows the people laying the mines sufficient time to move out of
its activation and blast zones.[67]
Aerial mining in World War II
Germany
In the 1930s, Germany had experimented with the laying of mines by
Camouflaged Iraqi mines
aircraft. It became a crucial element in their overall mining strategy. hidden inside oil barrels on
Aircraft had the advantage of speed, and they would never get caught a shipping barge in the
in their own minefields. German mines held a large 450 kg (1,000 lb) Persian Gulf, 2003.
explosive charge. From April to June 1940, the Luftwaffe laid 1,000
mines in British waters. Soviet ports were mined, as was the Arctic
convoy route to Murmansk.[68] The Heinkel He 115 could carry two medium or one large mine
while the Heinkel He 59, Dornier Do 18, Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 could carry more.
Soviet Union
The USSR was relatively ineffective in its use of naval mines in WWII in comparison with its record
in previous wars.[69] Small mines were developed for use in rivers and lakes, and special mines for
shallow water. A very large chemical mine was designed to sink through ice with the aid of a
melting compound. Special aerial mine designs finally arrived in 1943–1944, the AMD-500 and
AMD-1000.[70] Various Soviet Naval Aviation torpedo bombers were pressed into the role of aerial
mining in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, including Ilyushin DB-3s, Il-4s and Lend-Lease
Douglas Boston IIIs.[71]
United Kingdom
In September 1939, the UK announced the placement of extensive defensive minefields in waters
surrounding the Home Islands. Offensive aerial mining operations began in April 1940 when 38
mines were laid at each of these locations: the Elbe River, the port of Lübeck and the German naval
base at Kiel. In the next 20 months, mines delivered by aircraft sank or damaged 164 Axis ships
with the loss of 94 aircraft. By comparison, direct aerial attacks on Axis shipping had sunk or
damaged 105 vessels at a cost of 373 aircraft lost. The advantage of aerial mining became clear, and
the UK prepared for it. A total of 48,000 aerial mines were laid by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the
European Theatre during World War II.[72]
United States
As early as 1942, American mining experts such as Naval Ordnance Laboratory scientist Dr. Ellis A.
Johnson, CDR USNR, suggested massive aerial mining operations against Japan's "outer zone"
(Korea and northern China) as well as the "inner zone", their home islands. First, aerial mines
would have to be developed further and manufactured in large numbers. Second, laying the mines
would require a sizable air group. The US Army Air Forces had the
carrying capacity but considered mining to be the navy's job. The US
Navy lacked suitable aircraft. Johnson set about convincing General
Curtis LeMay of the efficacy of heavy bombers laying aerial mines.[73]
B-24 Liberators, PBY Catalinas and other bomber aircraft took part in
localized mining operations in the Southwest Pacific and the China
Burma India (CBI) theaters, beginning with a successful attack on the
Yangon River in February 1943. Aerial minelaying operations involved
a coalition of British, Australian and American aircrews, with the RAF
and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) carrying out 60% of the
A B-29 Superfortress
sorties and the USAAF and US Navy covering 40%. Both British and
dropping sea mines over
American mines were used. Japanese merchant shipping suffered Japanese home waters
tremendous losses, while Japanese mine sweeping forces were spread
too thin attending to far-flung ports and extensive coastlines. Admiral
Thomas C. Kinkaid, who directed nearly all RAAF mining operations in CBI, heartily endorsed
aerial mining, writing in July 1944 that "aerial mining operations were of the order of 100 times as
destructive to the enemy as an equal number of bombing missions against land targets."[74]
A single B-24 dropped three mines into Haiphong harbour in October 1943. One of those mines
sank a Japanese freighter. Another B-24 dropped three more mines into the harbour in November,
and a second freighter was sunk by a mine. The threat of the remaining mines prevented a convoy
of ten ships from entering Haiphong, and six of those ships were sunk by attacks before they
reached a safe harbour. The Japanese closed Haiphong to all steel-hulled ships for the remainder
of the war after another small ship was sunk by one of the remaining mines, although they may not
have realized no more than three mines remained.[4]
Using Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, the US Navy mounted a direct aerial mining
attack on enemy shipping in Palau on 30 March 1944 in concert with simultaneous conventional
bombing and strafing attacks. The dropping of 78 mines deterred 32 Japanese ships from escaping
Koror harbour, and 23 of those immobilized ships were sunk in a subsequent bombing raid.[4] The
combined operation sank or damaged 36 ships.[75] Two Avengers were lost, and their crews were
recovered.[76] The mines brought port usage to a halt for 20 days. Japanese mine sweeping was
unsuccessful; and the Japanese abandoned Palau as a base[74] when their first ship attempting to
traverse the swept channel was damaged by a mine detonation.[4]
In March 1945, Operation Starvation began in earnest, using 160 of LeMay's B-29 Superfortress
bombers to attack Japan's inner zone. Almost half of the mines were the US-built Mark 25 model,
carrying 570 kg (1,250 lb) of explosives and weighing about 900 kg (2,000 lb). Other mines used
included the smaller 500 kg (1,000 lb) Mark 26.[74] Fifteen B-29s were lost while 293 Japanese
merchant ships were sunk or damaged.[77] Twelve thousand aerial mines were laid, a significant
barrier to Japan's access to outside resources. Prince Fumimaro Konoe said after the war that the
aerial mining by B-29s had been "equally as effective as the B-29 attacks on Japanese industry at
the closing stages of the war when all food supplies and critical material were prevented from
reaching the Japanese home islands."[78] The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific
War) concluded that it would have been more efficient to combine the United States's effective
anti-shipping submarine effort with land- and carrier-based air power to strike harder against
merchant shipping and begin a more extensive aerial mining campaign earlier in the war. Survey
analysts projected that this would have starved Japan, forcing an earlier end to the war.[79] After
the war, Dr. Johnson looked at the Japan inner zone shipping results, comparing the total
economic cost of submarine-delivered mines versus air-dropped mines and found that, though 1 in
12 submarine mines connected with the enemy as opposed to 1 in 21 for aircraft mines, the aerial
mining operation was about ten times less expensive per enemy ton sunk.[80]
Clearing WWII aerial mines

Between 600,000 and 1,000,000 naval mines of all types were laid in WWII. Advancing military
forces worked to clear mines from newly-taken areas, but extensive minefields remained in place
after the war. Air-dropped mines had an additional problem for mine sweeping operations: they
were not meticulously charted. In Japan, much of the B-29 mine-laying work had been performed
at high altitude, with the drifting on the wind of mines carried by parachute adding a randomizing
factor to their placement. Generalized danger areas were identified, with only the quantity of mines
given in detail. Mines used in Operation Starvation were supposed to be self-sterilizing, but the
circuit did not always work. Clearing the mines from Japanese waters took so many years that the
task was eventually given to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.[81]
For the purpose of clearing all types of naval mines, the Royal Navy employed German crews and
minesweepers from June 1945 to January 1948,[82] organised in the German Mine Sweeping
Administration (GMSA), which consisted of 27,000 members of the former Kriegsmarine and 300
vessels.[83] Mine clearing was not always successful: a number of ships were damaged or sunk by
mines after the war. Two such examples were the liberty ships Pierre Gibault which was scrapped
after hitting a mine in a previously cleared area off the Greek island of Kythira in June 1945,[84]
and Nathaniel Bacon which hit a minefield off Civitavecchia, Italy in December 1945, caught fire,
was beached, and broke in two.[85]
Damage
The damage that may be caused by a mine depends on the "shock factor value", a combination of
the initial strength of the explosion and of the distance between the target and the detonation.
When taken in reference to ship hull plating, the term "Hull Shock Factor" (HSF) is used, while
keel damage is termed "Keel Shock Factor" (KSF). If the explosion is directly underneath the keel,
then HSF is equal to KSF, but explosions that are not directly underneath the ship will have a lower
value of KSF.[86]
Direct damage
Usually only created by contact mines, direct damage is a hole blown in the ship. Among the crew,
fragmentation wounds are the most common form of damage. Flooding typically occurs in one or
two main watertight compartments, which can sink smaller ships or disable larger ones. Contact
mine damage often occurs at or close to the waterline near the bow,[86] but depending on
circumstances a ship could be hit anywhere on its outer hull surface (the USS Samuel B. Roberts
mine attack being a good example of a contact mine detonating amidships and underneath the
ship).
Bubble jet effect

The bubble jet effect occurs when a mine or torpedo detonates in the water a short distance away
from the targeted ship. The explosion creates a bubble in the water, and due to the difference in
pressure, the bubble will collapse from the bottom. The bubble is buoyant, and so it rises towards
the surface. If the bubble reaches the surface as it collapses, it can create a pillar of water that can
go over a hundred meters into the air (a "columnar plume"). If conditions are right and the bubble
collapses onto the ship's hull, the damage to the ship can be extremely serious; the collapsing
bubble forms a high-energy jet similar to a shaped charge that can break a metre-wide hole straight
through the ship, flooding one or more compartments, and is capable of breaking smaller ships
apart. The crew in the areas hit by the pillar are usually killed instantly. Other damage is usually
limited.[86]
The Baengnyeong incident, in which the ROKS Cheonan broke in half and sank off the coast South
Korea in 2010, was caused by the bubble jet effect, according to an international
investigation.[87][88]
Shock effect
If the mine detonates at a distance from the ship, the change in water pressure causes the ship to
resonate. This is frequently the most deadly type of explosion, if it is strong enough. The whole
ship is dangerously shaken and everything on board is tossed around. Engines rip from their beds,
cables from their holders, etc. A badly shaken ship usually sinks quickly, with hundreds, or even
thousands of small leaks all over the ship and no way to power the pumps. The crew fare no better,
as the violent shaking tosses them around.[86] This shaking is powerful enough to cause disabling
injury to knees and other joints in the body, particularly if the affected person stands on surfaces
connected directly to the hull (such as steel decks).
The resulting gas cavitation and shock-front-differential over the width of the human body is
sufficient to stun or kill divers.[89]
Countermeasures
Weapons are frequently a few steps ahead of countermeasures, and
mines are no exception. In this field the British, with their large
seagoing navy, have had the bulk of world experience, and most anti-
mine developments, such as degaussing and the double-L sweep, were
British inventions. When on operational missions, such as the
invasion of Iraq, the US still relies on British and Canadian
minesweeping services. The US has worked on some innovative mine-
hunting countermeasures, such as the use of military dolphins to
detect and flag mines. However, they are of questionable effectiveness.
Mines in nearshore environments remain a particular challenge. They
are small and as technology has developed they can have anechoic A bottlenose dolphin of the
coatings, be non-metallic, and oddly shaped to resist detection.[90]: 18 United States Navy Marine
Further, oceanic conditions and the sea bottoms of the area of Mammal Program during
operations can degrade sweeping and hunting efforts.[90]: 18 Mining mine clearance operations
in the Persian Gulf
countermeasures are far more expensive and time-consuming than
mining operations, and that gap is only growing with new
technologies.[90]: 18
Passive countermeasures
Ships can be designed to be difficult for mines to detect, to avoid detonating them. This is
especially true for minesweepers and mine hunters that work in minefields, where a minimal
signature outweighs the need for armour and speed. These ships have hulls of glass fibre or wood
instead of steel to avoid magnetic signatures. These ships may use special propulsion systems, with
low magnetic electric motors, to reduce magnetic signature, and Voith-Schneider propellers, to
limit the acoustic signature. They are built with hulls that produce a minimal pressure signature.
These measures create other problems. They are expensive, slow, and vulnerable to enemy fire.
Many modern ships have a mine-warning sonar—a simple sonar looking forward and warning the
crew if it detects possible mines ahead. It is only effective when the ship is moving slowly.
(See also SQQ-32 Mine-hunting sonar)
A steel-hulled ship can be degaussed (more correctly, de-oerstedted or depermed) using a special
degaussing station that contains many large coils and induces a magnetic field in the hull with
alternating current to demagnetize the hull. This is a rather problematic solution, as magnetic
compasses need recalibration and all metal objects must be kept in exactly the same place. Ships
slowly regain their magnetic field as they travel through the Earth's magnetic field, so the process
has to be repeated every six months.[91]
A simpler variation of this technique called wiping, was developed by Charles F. Goodeve which
saved time and resources.
Between 1941 and 1943 the US Naval Gun factory (a division of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory) in
Washington, D.C., built physical models of all US naval ships. Three kinds of steel were used in
shipbuilding: mild steel for bulkheads, a mixture of mild steel and high tensile steel for the hull,
and special treatment steel for armor plate. The models were placed within coils which could
simulate the Earth's magnetic field at any location. The magnetic signatures were measured with
degaussing coils. The objective was to reduce the vertical component of the combination of the
Earth's field and the ship's field at the usual depth of German mines. From the measurements,
coils were placed and coil currents were determined to minimize the chance of detonation for any
ship at any heading at any latitude.[92]
Some ships are built with magnetic inductors, large coils placed along the ship to counter the ship's
magnetic field. Using magnetic probes in strategic parts of the ship, the strength of the current in
the coils can be adjusted to minimize the total magnetic field. This is a heavy and clumsy solution,
suited only to small-to-medium-sized ships. Boats typically lack the generators and space for the
solution, while the amount of power needed to overcome the magnetic field of a large ship is
impractical.[92]
Active countermeasures
Active countermeasures are ways to clear a path through a minefield or remove it completely. This
is one of the most important tasks of any mine warfare flotilla.
Mine sweeping
A sweep is either a contact sweep, a wire dragged through the water by one or two ships to cut the
mooring wire of floating mines, or a distance sweep that mimics a ship to detonate the mines. The
sweeps are dragged by minesweepers, either purpose-built military ships or converted trawlers.
Each run covers between one hundred and two hundred metres (330 and 660 ft), and the ships
must move slowly in a straight line, making them vulnerable to

enemy fire. This was exploited by the Turkish army in the
Battle of Gallipoli in 1915, when mobile howitzer batteries
prevented the British and French from clearing a way through
minefields.
If a contact sweep hits a mine, the wire of the sweep rubs

against the mooring wire until it is cut. Sometimes "cutters",
explosive devices to cut the mine's wire, are used to lessen the
strain on the sweeping wire. Mines cut free are recorded and
collected for research or shot with a deck gun.[93]
Minesweepers protect themselves with an oropesa or paravane

instead of a second minesweeper. These are torpedo-shaped
towed bodies, similar in shape to a Harvey torpedo, that are
streamed from the sweeping vessel thus keeping the sweep at a
determined depth and position. Some large warships were An MH-53E from HM-15 tows a
routinely equipped with paravane sweeps near the bows in case minesweeping sled while conducting
they inadvertently sailed into minefields—the mine would be simulated mine clearing operations
deflected towards the paravane by the wire instead of towards
the ship by its wake. More recently, heavy-lift helicopters have
dragged minesweeping sleds, as in the 1991 Persian Gulf
War.[94]
The distance sweep mimics the sound and magnetism of a ship

and is pulled behind the sweeper. It has floating coils and large
underwater drums. It is the only sweep effective against
bottom mines.
During WWII, RAF Coastal Command used Vickers Wellington

Minesweeper USS Tide after striking
bombers Wellington DW.Mk I fitted with degaussing coils to
a mine off Utah Beach, 7 June
trigger magnetic mines.[95] In a parallel development the 1944. Note her broken back, with
Luftwaffe adapted some Junkers 52/3m aircraft to also carry a smoke pouring from amidships.
coil operated by electricity supplied from an onboard
generator. The Luftwaffe called this adaption Minensuch(e) (lit.
mine-search).[96] In both cases pilots were required to fly at low altitude (up to about 200 feet
above the sea) and at fairly low speeds to be effective.
Modern influence mines are designed to discriminate against false inputs and are, therefore, much
harder to sweep. They often contain inherent anti-sweeping mechanisms. For example, they may
be programmed to respond to the unique noise of a particular ship-type, its associated magnetic
signature and the typical pressure displacement of such a vessel. As a result, a mine-sweeper must
accurately mimic the required target signature to trigger detonation. The task is complicated by the
fact that an influence mine may have one or more of a hundred different potential target signatures
programmed into it.[97]
Another anti-sweeping mechanism is a ship-counter in the mine fuze. When enabled, this allows
detonation only after the mine fuze has been triggered a pre-set number of times. To further
complicate matters, influence mines may be programmed to arm themselves (or disarm
automatically—known as self-sterilization) after a pre-set time. During the pre-set arming delay
(which could last days or even weeks) the mine would remain dormant and ignore any target
stimulus, whether genuine or false.[97]
When influence mines are laid in an ocean minefield, they may have various combinations of fuze
settings configured. For example, some mines (with the acoustic sensor enabled) may become
active within three hours of being laid, others (with the acoustic and magnetic sensors enabled)
may become active after two weeks but have the ship-counter mechanism set to ignore the first two
trigger events, and still others in the same minefield (with the magnetic and pressure sensors
enabled) may not become armed until three weeks have passed. Groups of mines within this mine-
field may have different target signatures which may or may not overlap. The fuzes on influence
mines allow many different permutations, which complicates the clearance process.[97]
Mines with ship-counters, arming delays and highly specific target signatures in mine fuzes can
falsely convince a belligerent that a particular area is clear of mines or has been swept effectively
because a succession of vessels have already passed through safely.
Minehunting
As naval mines have become more sophisticated, and able to
discriminate between targets, so they have become more
difficult to deal with by conventional sweeping. This has given
rise to the practice of minehunting. Minehunting is very
different from sweeping, although some minehunters can do
both tasks. Minehunting pays little attention to the nature of
the mine itself. Nor does the method change much. At the
current state of the art, minehunting remains the best way to
deal with influence mines proving to be both safer and more Pinguin B3 minehunting drone, such
effective than sweeping. Specialized high-frequency sonars and are operated from Frankenthal-class
high fidelity sidescaning sonar are used for mine minehunters of the German Navy
location. [90]: 18 Mines are hunted using sonar, then inspected
and destroyed either by divers or ROVs (remote controlled
unmanned mini-submarines). It is slow, but also the most reliable way to remove mines.
Minehunting started during the Second World War, but it was only after the war that it became
truly effective.
Sea mammals (mainly the bottlenose dolphin) have been trained to hunt and mark mines, most
famously by the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program. Mine-clearance dolphins were deployed in
the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War in 2003. The US Navy claims that these dolphins were
effective in helping to clear more than 100 antiship mines and underwater booby traps from Umm
Qasr Port.[98]
French naval officer Jacques Yves Cousteau's Undersea Research Group was once involved in
minehunting operations: They removed or detonated a variety of German mines, but one
particularly defusion-resistant batch—equipped with acutely sensitive pressure, magnetic, and
acoustic sensors and wired together so that one explosion would trigger the rest—was simply left
undisturbed for years until corrosion would (hopefully) disable the mines.[99]
Mine running
A more drastic method is simply to run a ship through the

minefield, letting other ships safely follow the same path. An
early example of this was Farragut's actions at Mobile Bay
during the American Civil War. However, as mine warfare
became more developed this method became uneconomical.
This method was revived by the German Imperial German
Navy during World War I. Left with a surfeit of idle ships due
to the Allied blockade, the Germans introduced a ship known
as Sperrbrecher ("block breaker"). The type was also used Seehund ROVs of the German Navy
during World War II. Typically an old cargo ship, loaded with used for minesweeping
cargo that made her less vulnerable to sinking (wood for
example), the Sperrbrecher was run ahead of the ship to be
protected, detonating any mines that might be in their path. The use of Sperrbrecher obviated the
need to continuous and painstaking sweeping, but the cost was high. Over half the 100 or so ships
used as Sperrbrecher in WWII were sunk during the war. Alternatively, a shallow draught vessel
can be steamed through the minefield at high speed to generate a pressure wave sufficient to
trigger mines, with the minesweeper moving fast enough to be sufficiently clear of the pressure
wave so that triggered mines do not destroy the ship itself. These techniques are the only way to
sweep pressure mines that is publicly known to be employed. The technique can be simply
countered by use of a ship-counter, set to allow a certain number of passes before the mine is
actually triggered. Modern doctrine calls for ground mines to be hunted rather than swept. A new
system is being introduced for sweeping pressure mines, however counters are going to remain a
problem.[100][101]
An updated form of this method is the use of small unmanned ROVs (such as the Seehund drone)
that simulate the acoustic and magnetic signatures of larger ships and are built to survive
exploding mines. Repeated sweeps would be required in case one or more of the mines had its
"ship counter" facility enabled i.e. were programmed to ignore the first 2, 3, or even 6 target
activations.
Counter-mining
Another expedient for clearing mines, especially in a hurry, is counter-mining. By this method an
explosive is detonated in the area of a known or suspected minefield and the blast either trips off
the fuses or the actual explosive contained within the mine or mines. This latter is known as a
sympathetic detonation. Counter-mining is normally used as a last resort or if other equipment is
not available. One example was at the entrance to Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta in WW2 when
the British dropped depth charges into the harbour entrance to detonate suspected mines prior to
the arrival of an important convoy. It is especially useful against acoustic or pressure mines due to
their activation by sound or increases in water pressure.
National arsenals
US mines
The United States Navy MK56 ASW mine (the oldest still in use by the United States) was
developed in 1966. More advanced mines include the MK60 CAPTOR (short for "encapsulated
torpedo"), the MK62 and MK63 Quickstrike and the MK67 SLMM (Submarine Launched Mobile
Mine). Today, most U.S. naval mines are delivered by aircraft.
MK67 SLMM Submarine Launched Mobile Mine

The SLMM was developed by the United States as a submarine deployed mine for use in areas
inaccessible for other mine deployment techniques or for covert mining of hostile environments.
The SLMM is a shallow-water mine and is basically a modified Mark 37 torpedo.
General characteristics
Type: Submarine-laid bottom mine

Detection System: Magnetic/seismic/pressure target detection devices (TDDs)
Dimensions: 0.485 by 4.09 m (19.1 by 161.0 in)
Depth Range: Shallow water
Weight: 754 kg (1,662 lb)
Explosives: 230 kg (510 lb) high explosive
Date Deployed: 1987
MK65 Quickstrike
The Quickstrike[102] is a family of shallow-water aircraft-laid
mines used by the United States, primarily against surface
craft. The MK65 is a 910 kg (2,000 lb) dedicated, purpose-built
mine. However, other Quickstrike versions (MK62, MK63, and
MK64) are converted general-purpose bombs. These latter
three mines are actually a single type of electronic fuze fitted to
Mk82, Mk83 and Mk84 air-dropped bombs. Because this latter
type of Quickstrike fuze only takes up a small amount of MK 62 Quick Strike deployed from a
storage space compared to a dedicated sea mine, the air- P-3 Orion
dropped bomb casings have dual purpose i.e. can be fitted with
conventional contact fuzes and dropped on land targets, or
have a Quickstrike fuze fitted which converts them into sea mines.
Type: aircraft-laid bottom mine (with descent to water slowed by a parachute or other
mechanism)
Detection System: Magnetic/seismic/pressure target detection devices (TDDs)
Dimensions: 0.74 by 3.25 m (29 by 128 in)
Depth Range: Shallow water
Weight: 1,086 kg (2,394 lb)
Explosives: Various loads
Date Deployed: 1983
MK56
Type: Aircraft laid moored mine

Detection System: Total field magnetic exploder
Dimensions: 0.570 by 2.9 m (22.4 by 114.2 in)
Depth Range: Moderate depths
Weight: 909 kg (2,004 lb)
Explosives: 164 kg (362 lb) HBX-3
Date Deployed: 1966
Royal Navy
According to a statement made to the UK Parliament in 2002:[103]
...the Royal Navy does not have any mine stocks and has not had since 1992.
Notwithstanding this, the United Kingdom retains the capability to lay mines and
continues research into mine exploitation. Practice mines, used for exercises, continue
to be laid in order to retain the necessary skills.
However, a British company (BAE Systems) does manufacture the Stonefish influence mine for
export to friendly countries such as Australia, which has both war stock and training versions of
Stonefish,[104] in addition to stocks of smaller Italian MN103 Manta mines.[65] The computerised
fuze on a Stonefish mine contains acoustic, magnetic and water pressure displacement target
detection sensors. Stonefish can be deployed by fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, surface vessels and
submarines. An optional kit is available to allow Stonefish to be air-dropped, comprising an
aerodynamic tail-fin section and parachute pack to retard the weapon's descent. The operating
depth of Stonefish ranges between 30 and 200 metres. The mine weighs 990 kilograms and
contains a 600 kilogram aluminised PBX explosive warhead.
Modern mine warfare

Mine warfare remains the most cost-effective form of asymmetrical naval warfare. Mines are
relatively cheap and being small allows them to be easily deployed. Indeed, with some kinds of
mines, trucks and rafts will suffice. At present there are more than 300 different mines available.
Some 50 countries currently have mining ability. The number of naval mine producing countries
has increased by 75% since 1988. It is also noted that these mines are of an increasing
sophistication while even the older type mines present a significant problem. It has been noted that
mine warfare may become an issue with terrorist organizations. Mining busy shipping straits and
mining shipping harbours remain some of the most serious threats.[90]: 9
See also
Bomb disposal
HMHS Britannic
Corfu Channel case
Land mine
Minesweeper
Minelayer
Destroyer minesweeper WWII
Royal Navy's Admiralty Mining Establishment
Royal Naval Patrol Service
Shock factor
Mine planter (vessel)
Singer (naval mine)
Submarine mines in United States harbor defense
Stonefish influence mine
Operation Pocket Money (aerial mining campaign against North Vietnam in 1972)
George Gosse
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espeak.us/2007/11/sunday-ship-history-degaussing-ships.html). EagleSpeak. Eaglespeak.us.
93. "Mine Sweeping Operations" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090402163450/http://www.ussimp
licitmso-455.com/Minesweeping.html). Minesweeping. Charles Lees. Archived from the original
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95. "Britain's Vickers Wellington bomber, 'Wimpey' " (https://web.archive.org/web/20111118105920/
http://www.wwiivehicles.com/unitedkingdom/aircraft/bomber/vickers-wellington.asp). World War
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Use of Mines in WW II". Warship International. XLVII (2): 95–99. ISSN 0043-0374 (https://www.
worldcat.org/issn/0043-0374).
Macrae, Stuart (1971). Winston Churchill's Toyshop. Roundwood Press. ISBN 0-900093-22-6.
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Books, Ltd.
Tarle, Yevgeny (1944). Крымская война [Crimean War] (in Russian). Vol. II. Moscow: Soviet
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Attribution
This article incorporates text from Publication, Issue 33 Document (United States. War
Dept.), by United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division, a publication
from 1901, now in the public domain in the United States.
This article incorporates text from Reports on military operations in South Africa and China.
July, 1901, by United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division, Stephen
L'H. Slocum, Carl Reichmann, Adna Romanga Chaffee, a publication from 1901, now in the
public domain in the United States.
This article incorporates text from Reports on military operations in South Africa and China,
by Stephan L'H. Slocum, Carl Reichmann, Adna Romanza Chaffee, United States. Adjutant-
General's Office. Military Information Division, a publication from 1901, now in the public
domain in the United States.
Further reading
Hartmann, Gregory K.; Truver, Scott C. (1991). Weapons That Wait: Mine Warfare in the U.S.
Navy. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-753-4. (Canonical general text about
U.S. mine warfare)
Hewitt, James Terrance (1998). Desert Sailor: A War of Mine. Clementsport: The Canadian
Peacekeeping Press. ISBN 1-896551-17-3. (Personal account of mine countermeasures
operations in Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War 1991, including the mining of USS
Tripoli.)
Peniston, Bradley (2006). No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian
Gulf (https://web.archive.org/web/20060712122740/http://www.navybook.com/nohigherhonor/).
Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-661-5. Archived from the original (http://www.n
avybook.com/nohigherhonor) on 12 July 2006. Retrieved 31 December 2011. (Describes mine
damage to a U.S. frigate)
Wise, Harold Lee (2007). Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf 1987–
88 (http://www.insidethedangerzone.com). Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-
59114-970-5. (Describes American efforts to combat Iranian mine campaign in the Persian
Gulf)
External links
Technical details of German Second World War sea mines (http://www.lexpev.nl/downloads/ger
manunderwaterordnancemines1946.pdf)
'Stonefish' – a British influence mine (https://web.archive.org/web/20081206154227/http://www.
baesystems.com/ProductsServices/autoGen_10691917525.html) (archived 6 December 2008)

Development of Minewarfare (http://www.mcdoa.org.uk/Development_of_Minewarfare.htm)
List of various mine types (https://web.archive.org/web/20131103144718/http://www.worldwidei
nvention.com/articles/details/312/Naval-mine-contained-explosive-device-placed-in-water-to-de
stroy-ships-or-submarines.html) (archived 3 November 2013)
Description of mines used by the United States (http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMUS_
Mines.htm)
Henry Norton Sulivan: a depiction of early Naval Mine (http://www.pdavis.nl/Baltic8.htm)
Belgian-Netherlands Naval Mine Warfare School, NATO Center of Excellence (https://web.arch
ive.org/web/20111112105736/http://www.eguermin.org/aboutus/home.asp) (archived 12
November 2011)
W.L.Clowes in 1855 (http://www.pdavis.nl/Russia4.htm)
Popular Science, March 1940, Can Mines Conqueror Sea Power (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=wCYDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+science+March+1940&pg=PA78)
Popular Science, November 1943, Mine Killers at Work (https://books.google.com/books?id=P
NcDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+mechanics+1943+C-87&pg=PA78)
"Fighting The Submarine Mine – How Navies Combat A Deadly Sea Weapon" October 1941 (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=VCcDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+science+may+1941&pg=PA
102)
"Mines Are Dirty Tricks" , February 1951 (https://books.google.com/books?id=pCEDAAAAMBA
J&dq=popular+science+1951+mines+are+dirty+tricks&pg=PA107) updates to above article on
naval mines due to Korean War and types and measures against
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5/16/24, 12:30 AM Naval mine - Wikipedia

Although international law requires signatory nations to

Their flexibility and cost-effectiveness make mines attractive to the

Mines have been employed as offensive or defensive weapons in

American David Bushnell developed the

The 19th century

Early 20th century

Initially, contact mines (requiring a ship to physically strike a mine to

The British experienced a stroke of luck in November 1939,

The Allies and Germany deployed acoustic mines in World War

Cold War era

During the Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, the belligerents

In the summer of 1984, magnetic sea mines damaged at least

Post Cold War

Naval mines may be classified into three major groups; contact,

Moored contact mines

Floating mines typically have a mass of around 200 kg

Moored contact mines with plummet

Drifting contact mines

Remotely controlled mines

Laying a minefield is a relatively fast process with specialized

Other methods to lay minefields include:

Converted merchant ships – rolled or slid down ramps

In some cases, mines are automatically activated upon contact with

Aerial mining in World War II

Clearing WWII aerial mines

Bubble jet effect

must move slowly in a straight line, making them vulnerable to

If a contact sweep hits a mine, the wire of the sweep rubs

Minesweepers protect themselves with an oropesa or paravane

The distance sweep mimics the sound and magnetism of a ship

During WWII, RAF Coastal Command used Vickers Wellington

A more drastic method is simply to run a ship through the

MK67 SLMM Submarine Launched Mobile Mine

Type: Submarine-laid bottom mine

Type: Aircraft laid moored mine

Date Deployed: 1966

Modern mine warfare

54. "How Mines Help Guard America's Harbors" (https://books.google.com/books?id=19kDAAAAM

baesystems.com/ProductsServices/autoGen_10691917525.html) (archived 6 December 2008)

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