A. it's a prototype and had the only set of plans aboard.
B. improved sensor technology rendered the development pointless (pretty much what happens in ST6...)
C. There are more, but in limited service which we never see.
take your pick
why can't we cloak?
- Thread starter RobertScorpio
- Start date
A. it's a prototype and had the only set of plans aboard.
B. improved sensor technology rendered the development pointless (pretty much what happens in ST6...)
C. There are more, but in limited service which we never see.
take your pick
Was that a cloak, or a holodeck type projection?
Holo emitter, cloaking device, bottom line is they're sneaking around on Mintaka IV and Bak'u.
I could see some galactic court of law, "your Honor it was a Holo Emitter; not a Cloaking Device!" on Law ans Order the judge would throw the book at them.
I could see some galactic court of law, "your Honor it was a Holo Emitter; not a Cloaking Device!" on Law ans Order the judge would throw the book at them.
When the Enterprise-E was introduced, word was that it was supposed to be equipped with a "stealth screen" that was a cloaking device in everything but name.
There were hopes it could be shown in a future movie.
IIRC, the only time it was used was in the comic book X-Men/ST:TNG crossover.
There were hopes it could be shown in a future movie.
IIRC, the only time it was used was in the comic book X-Men/ST:TNG crossover.
There's probably still a practical as well as juridical difference there. Much like it would be illegal to own an anti-tank cannon but not to own a revolver, the Romulans might have agreed that there's nothing wrong with the Feds having a holoscreen that can be penetrated with Fisher-Price's My First Tricorder, as long as the Feds don't field an actual cloak that fools starship sensors.
The old Romulan cloak in "Balance of Terror" probably amounted to little more than a holoscreen anyway: Spock's sensors could track the ship's movement to some accuracy despite the invisibility. (The ENT era Romulan camouflages certainly look like simple holoscreens - so even though the visual invisibility provided by them is at odds with the claims in "BoT", they aren't necessarily anachronistically advanced technology.) And the system used by Chang could have been worse than standard Klingon cloaks of the day, compromising on quality in order to allow for firing torpedoes through it - a tradeoff the Klingons were not happy with when Federation sensors got better and began tracking their ships even through standard cloaks.
That's something we see in all the spinoffs, really: the cloak of a newly encountered adversary ship type is highly efficient at first, but our heroes soon begin to see characteristic "disturbances" or "anomalies" to suggest the presence of the foe. Perhaps the Feds have simply decided not to bother when cloaks are a prohibitively expensive weapon system to develop, field and discard every five years or so.
Timo Saloniemi
Another thing to ask is: Why develop a sensor jamming system. It wouldn't be something you could use to sneak up close to a ship or base with ("Sub Commander Urik, what's that starship sized moving blank area coming towards us?") but during a battle being able to keep your opponent from locking weapons on you would be a huge advantage.
By the way, unequal treaties are nothing new.
In the early 1970s, the U.S. signed the SALT I treaty with the U.S.S.R that allowed the Soviets to have more than 500 more strategic nuclear weapons than the U.S.
Because it was believed that certain U.S. advantages would compensate for superior Soviet numbers.
In the early 1970s, the U.S. signed the SALT I treaty with the U.S.S.R that allowed the Soviets to have more than 500 more strategic nuclear weapons than the U.S.
Because it was believed that certain U.S. advantages would compensate for superior Soviet numbers.
Erm, "we" didn't, because "we" are not the Federation. The Federation's kinda not real. And stuff.
Also, the Federation places a high value on peace. While they certainly aren't appeasers, not using cloaks is a small price to pay if it keeps the Romulans on their side of the Neutral Zone for 100 years.
See, I'm not convinced it's an issue of peace. Not without seeing more details of the treaty. The question of non-Romulan powers having cloaking technology just doesn't seem like a huge issue to me from their perspective, because it's clearly not restricted to them.
When TNG was in its 6th season, I remember mentioning to my wife (also a big fan) how the only two real problems I had with Trek was that the Federation had no cloak and that nearly all the aliens were humanoid. Not too long after I said that, The Chase addressed the humanoid issue and the following season's The Pegasus addressed the cloaking device situation. I miss that show!
The thing is... look at the situation with nuclear explosive technology. We have a treaty with other developed nations to NOT use them. However, we still have them and I have no doubt there are some research efforts afoot to improve our thermonuclear devices (nothing dramatic, but enough funding and effort to help achieve a smaller platform and higher yield).
I could see the Federation doing the same thing. After all, look at the Pegasus cloaking device. This was an unprecedented advantage! To not only cloak but pass through solid objects. This is an enormous tactical advantage over an enemy.
So yes, you don't want Federation ships running around with this technology enabled and making it tempting to use it at any moment, on the original principle of the Federation not being "stealthy".
But I tell you what... against Species 8472 and the Borg, you sure as hell would want this kind of technology. Imagine being able to construct a photon torpedo with it... The torpedo is launched in a cloaked state, enters INSIDE the enemy vessel, then materializes to cause massive destruction. Hands down this beats a transphasic torpedo.
So, if the Federation would leave itself bound to not using cloaking technology for their ships, why not an interphasic cloak for photon torpedoes? I'd bet this could slip through loopholes in that cloaking ban. And the technology would make the Federation capable of decimating severe enemies like the Borg.
I could see the Federation doing the same thing. After all, look at the Pegasus cloaking device. This was an unprecedented advantage! To not only cloak but pass through solid objects. This is an enormous tactical advantage over an enemy.
So yes, you don't want Federation ships running around with this technology enabled and making it tempting to use it at any moment, on the original principle of the Federation not being "stealthy".
But I tell you what... against Species 8472 and the Borg, you sure as hell would want this kind of technology. Imagine being able to construct a photon torpedo with it... The torpedo is launched in a cloaked state, enters INSIDE the enemy vessel, then materializes to cause massive destruction. Hands down this beats a transphasic torpedo.
So, if the Federation would leave itself bound to not using cloaking technology for their ships, why not an interphasic cloak for photon torpedoes? I'd bet this could slip through loopholes in that cloaking ban. And the technology would make the Federation capable of decimating severe enemies like the Borg.
Actually, the duck blind isn't a cloaking device, it's actually a holographic disguise which makes the installation look like something else, in both cases a rock wall.
Of course, the Ba'ku incident had the holoship which did have a cloaking device, which kind of is against the Treaty of Algeron.
As previously mentioned, unequal treaty are more common than one might think. I beleive this specific "plot" detail is a reflection of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty prohibiting any new power from acquiring nuclear power but allowing those that already have it to keep it. It always was an actual subject, it is more than ever with last years events involving Iran and North Korea. It would be nice to see this address again. Perhaps in the next Trek installement (let's try jj.abrams@paramount.com...)
According to the non-canonical novel 'Serpents Among the Ruins' in exchange for the Federation not developing cloaking technology, the Romulans agreed to essentially withdraw back into their space and not bug anyone, hence how in 'The Neutral Zone' it was a shock that the Romulans finally reappeared.