Land mine (Tiberium)

A land mine is a self-contained explosive device designed to be placed onto or into the ground, exploding when triggered by an operator or the close proximity of a vehicle, person or animal. The concept of such a weapon existed as far back as the 13th century when it was first introduced in practice by the Chinese Song dynasty.

In modern times, the first mass use of land mines was in the Great World War II. Both the Allied Forces and the Soviet Union employed mines as means of stopping the enemy advance and/or crippling his forces. The Allies used massive round anti-tank mines, equipped with a pressure trigger that detonated the explosive when a tank or similar vehicle passed over it. Three were enough to destroy a Mammoth tank. USSR on the other hand worked to counter enemy commando raids on their supplies and masses of infantry deployed against them. Their mines were based on the concept of a small but powerful fragmentation charge with four wires extending from it that were easily tripped by infantry.

While the weapons were banned following the war due to their inhumanely savage behaviour, they were ultimately reintroduced in the First Tiberium War as proximity mines used to seal and secure critical locations on the battlefield. They were temporarily withdrawn from the arsenals in the Second Tiberium War due to the ineffective and time consuming methods of delivery but were brought back by both Nod and GDI after the war, deployed by either advanced APCs or Armageddon special bombers. The new mines resemble one half of a sphere and are designed to maim and kill infantry as well as cripple vehicles.