Mine

A mine is a weapon deployed in a particular area to prevent enemy travel. Usually small, unmanned devices, mines can be deployed in space to be used against starships, or on land to be used against enemy ground forces. They generally explode on contact or when their proximity sensors detect an enemy nearby. The deployment of mines is generally considered an act of war.

A mine does not necessarily have to inflict damage on a vessel when they come into contact, different types of mines have been known to merely disable vessels, such as those used by the Hekarans Serova and Rabal in the Hekaras Corridor. These mines were designed to emit verteron pulses to simply disable subspace systems on passing starships. 

In 2152, the encountered a field of cloaked tricobalt mines, utilizing boridium power cells, surrounding a planet that the Romulan Empire had annexed. One of the mines caused significant damage to Enterprise's port fore quarter. Another mine lodged itself on Enterprise's hull, dangerously close to the starboard impulse reactor, leading Lieutenant Reed to exit Enterprise and attempt to disarm the mine. 

In 2372, the Klingon Empire secretly deployed cloaked mines around the Bajoran star system to prevent the Federation from sending reinforcements to the sector, as a precursor to a Klingon invasion. However, their activities were exposed when an accidental mine detonation caused severe damage to the. Lieutenant Commander Worf and Kurn were able to infiltrate the Drovana and obtain the mines' detonation codes. Subsequently, Major Kira Nerys aboard the USS Defiant (2370) detonated the minefield. 

Another instance when mines were used was in 2373 when Starfleet mined the enterance to the Bajoran wormhole to prevent Dominion reiforcements from being provided to the Cardassian Union. The mines were small, only about a meter across, and were equipped with cloaking devices. They were also self-replicating and designed to swarm-detonate in order to destroy larger Dominion ships. The USS Defiant (2370) was dispatched to carry out this task. When ordered by the Dominion to remove the minefield the United Federation of Planets flatly refused, sparking the dispute which led to the Dominion War (2373-2375). 

In some instances, smaller mines are used, such as the anti-personnel mines the Dominion deployed around a communications array at AR-558. 

Types of mines

 * Anti-personnel mine
 * "Houdinis"
 * Antimatter mine
 * Gravitic mine
 * Multi-kinetic neutronic mine
 * Pulse mine
 * Romulan mine
 * Self-replicating mine
 * Subspace mine