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Cloaked romulan minefield

A cloaked Romulan minefield in the 22nd century

USS Defiant deploying mines

The USS Defiant deploys a minefield

Minefield destroyed

The minefield is destroyed

For the ENT episode of the same name, please see "Minefield".

A minefield was a passive defense measure consisting of a network of mines deployed in space. Several races knew how to make use of them.

The Romulan Star Empire was known to deploy minefields in the 22nd century to protect the sovereignty of their borders. The Earth Starfleet starship Enterprise strayed into a cloaked Romulan minefield in April 2152. One mine breached its hull while another attached itself to the ship. (ENT: "Minefield")

In the final draft script of "Minefield", this Romulan minefield was said to consist of "hundreds" of mines.

Section 31 Headquarters was surrounded by a minefield incorporating blade mines and blackout mines, despite the Federation banning the use of minefields at the time. Admiral Katrina Cornwell attempted to justify allowing this to the bridge crew of the USS Discovery by stating that the Federation had not built the mines and that the Federation-Klingon War had forced them to tolerate their use, drawing criticism from Captain Christopher Pike. (DIS: "Project Daedalus")

During the Federation-Cardassian War, several minefields were deployed. (TNG: "Ethics")

The Dominion was known to use minefields. In 2374, Worf mentioned that he had piloted starships through these. (DS9: "Time's Orphan")

After the Klingon Empire withdrew from the Khitomer Accords and the Federation-Klingon War began, the Klingons attempted to mine the Bajoran system, thus preventing the Dominion from leaving the system if they invaded. This would have left the Empire able to focus on conquering the entire Cardassian Union and the rest of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. A cloaked mine detonated and was detected by a runabout from Deep Space 9. Later, another mine detonated and a Vor'cha-class ship, the IKS Drovana, was badly damaged. This led to the failure of the Klingons' plan as Worf and Kurn boarded the ship and obtained the detonation codes. The USS Defiant detonated the minefield and the other Klingon ships retreated back to the Empire. (DS9: "Sons of Mogh")

As war with the Dominion seemed increasingly likely in late 2373, the Federation mined the entrance to the Bajoran wormhole to stop more Dominion reinforcements coming through. The mines were self-replicating and were equipped with cloaking devices. Even after the Dominion seized control of Deep Space 9, the minefield remained in place. The field stood for at least three months before it was destroyed after disabling the replication units with an antigraviton beam. (DS9: "Call to Arms", "A Time to Stand", "Sacrifice of Angels")

The planet Salina Prime in the Delta Quadrant was protected by subspace minefields. In 2375, a Druoda series 5 long-range tactical armor unit took control of the USS Voyager and plotted a course around the minefields in an attempt to the reach the planet. (VOY: "Warhead")

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