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Can a ship cloak and go undetected

THe Defiant cloaked and followed the Xhosa into the Badlands with no problems.
 
I think it was mentioned in Blaze of Glory where the Dominion could detect the cloaked Defiant due to the effect its engines had on the Badlands.
 
^ That seemed to be a particular problem with the Defiant, which means other ships might be able to go in cloaked without their engines giving them away.
 
^ Yeah we have to remember that the Defiant really wasn't designed to have a cloaking device. A lot of people forget that it seems.
 
Voyager couldn't because the tetrahydric polyplasmic inversion would make them visible.
Defiant, OTOH, can, as demonstrated when Sisko spied on his gf. However, this could have been due to bad sensors on that freighter.
 
^ Yeah we have to remember that the Defiant really wasn't designed to have a cloaking device. A lot of people forget that it seems.

They said that it was the power output that was unusually large for a ship it's size... but I can't imagine if it was the same power on a bigger vessel that that would help. Would it?
 
^ Yeah we have to remember that the Defiant really wasn't designed to have a cloaking device. A lot of people forget that it seems.

They said that it was the power output that was unusually large for a ship it's size... but I can't imagine if it was the same power on a bigger vessel that that would help. Would it?

I suppose that if the same amount of power was spread out over a wider area, it might be less noticeable. In the same way that a kilo of sand spread across your drive is less obvious than if it is in a big pile.

Mind you, if the problem is that the Defiant is overpowered, could they not just turn the engines down and put a few systems on standby?
 
That did seem to help in "The Search", yes. But they had to slow all the way down to impulse, nay, full stop.

In "The Die is Cast", the Romulans also limited their speed so as to remain perfectly cloaked, but they could still make respectable warp.

It's not necessarily a problem with power as such - but of the power being pumped into an emitting application. The Defiant might have too big a warp field for her own cloaked good, or a warp field with too great a power density. Another ship, configured differently, could get the same speed out of her warp field with less power density and thus a lesser signature.

Timo Saloniemi
 
That did seem to help in "The Search", yes. But they had to slow all the way down to impulse, nay, full stop.

In "The Die is Cast", the Romulans also limited their speed so as to remain perfectly cloaked, but they could still make respectable warp.

It's not necessarily a problem with power as such - but of the power being pumped into an emitting application. The Defiant might have too big a warp field for her own cloaked good, or a warp field with too great a power density. Another ship, configured differently, could get the same speed out of her warp field with less power density and thus a lesser signature.

Timo Saloniemi

Timo, how come you're so smart? :bolian:
 
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