Editing Land mine (section)

===Laying mines===
[[File:Minefield warning.JPG|thumb|Minefield warning on the [[Golan Heights]], still valid more than 40 years after creation of the field by the Syrian army]]

Minefields may be laid by several means. The preferred, but most labour-intensive, way is to have engineers bury the mines, since this will make the mines practically invisible and reduce the number of mines needed to deny the enemy an area. Mines can be laid by specialized mine-laying vehicles. Mine-scattering shells may be fired by [[artillery]] from a distance of several tens of kilometers.

Mines may be dropped from [[helicopter]]s or airplanes, or ejected from [[cluster bomb]]s or [[cruise missile]]s.

Anti-tank minefields can be scattered with anti-personnel mines to make clearing them manually more time-consuming; and anti-personnel minefields are scattered with anti-tank mines to prevent the use of armored vehicles to clear them quickly. Some anti-tank mine types are also able to be triggered by infantry, giving them a dual purpose even though their main and official intention is to work as anti-tank weapons.

Some minefields are specifically [[booby-trap]]ped to make clearing them more dangerous. Mixed anti-personnel and anti-tank minefields, anti-personnel mines ''under'' anti-tank mines, and fuses separated from mines have all been used for this purpose. Often, single mines are backed by a secondary device, designed to kill or maim personnel tasked with clearing the mine.

Multiple anti-tank mines have been buried in stacks of two or three with the bottom mine fuzed, to multiply the penetrating power. Since the mines are buried, the ground directs the energy of the blast in a single direction—through the bottom of the target vehicle or on the track.

Another specific use is to mine an aircraft runway immediately after it has been bombed to delay or discourage repair. Some cluster bombs combine these functions. One example was the British [[JP233]] cluster bomb which includes munitions to damage (crater) the runway as well as anti-personnel mines in the same cluster bomb. As a result of the anti-personnel mine ban it was withdrawn from British Royal Air Force service, and the last stockpiles of the mine were destroyed on October 19, 1999.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo991025/text/91025w12.htm#91025w12.htm_sbhd4 | title=House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 25 Oct 1999 (pt 12) | access-date=January 22, 2019 | archive-date=December 13, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213172148/https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo991025/text/91025w12.htm#91025w12.htm_sbhd4 | url-status=live }}</ref>