minelayer

thumb|Canadian sailors with a mine aboard the minelayer HMCS Sankaty (steamboat)|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. "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.