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Technology of Romulan origin used to render an object, typically a space vehicle, invisible to the eye and to most sensor systems, also used by the Klingons and by the Federation starship USS Defiant (for why, see below). The cloaking device generates a space distortion which causes light and sensor rays to travel around the ship, so that nothing is reflected from its surface and causing anyone looking at a cloaked object to see only what is behind it.
Cloaking the ship consumes large amounts of power, therefore the simultaneous use of the warp drive was not possible with the early cloaking devices in the 23rd century [TOS: Balance of Terror]. Furthermore, the use of weapons is usually not possible while the cloaking device is activated; an exception was a ship in 2293 whose action almost derailed the Klingon-Federation peace negotiations, as depicted in [Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]. Romulan and Klingon spacecraft are often equipped with cloaking devices. Federation ships are prohibited from employing cloaks so under the terms of the Treaty of Algeron [TNG: Pegasus], except for the Federation starship USS Defiant whose cloaking device was on loan from the Romulan government on certain conditions (for which, see below) [DS9: Defiant]. In an anti-time future created by Q, some Federation starships were equipped with cloaking devices, including the upgraded Enterprise-D, [TNG: All Good Things...]. The Voth have developed a personal cloaking device [#65 Distant Origin]. The Doctor tells the Clown that Janeway has offered to give him a cloaking device to shield them from being detected by any other interstellar visitors if they return the hostages, [#39 The Thaw].
The Klingons apparently obtained basic cloaking technology from the Romulans around 2268, when an alliance existed between the Klingons and the Romulans. Many Klingon ships of the Klingon Defense Force, including their birds-of-prey, were equipped with cloaking devices [Star Trek III: The Search For Spock].
Klingon bird-of-prey, [Star Trek III: The Search For Spock] another artwork picture
An experimental Klingon bird-of-prey was developed, circa 2292, which had the ability to fire torpedoes while still cloaked. This would have provided a significant tactical advantage, had means not been developed to detect a ship so equipped, as shown in [Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]. Cloaking devices on old D-12-class birds-of-prey were equipped with defective plasma coils, rendering the ship vulnerable [Star Trek VII: Generations]. Klingon-style cloaking devices will not operate within emission nebulae [DS9: Return to Grace]. Presumably cloaking devices are continually being improved, as are the sensor systems used to detect them. For this reason, any advance in either cloaking or sensing technologies seems to provide only a brief advantage until the other side catches up.
the Klingon ship is revealed, [#160 Prophecy] | In 2377 U.S.S. Voyager comes under attack from a D-7 Klingon battle cruiser but, because of its age, Voyager's crew know the attacking ship's systems and Seven duly carries out a metaphasic scan and the Klingon vessel's location is pinpointed, enabling Voyager to disable the ship [#160 Prophecy]. |
The first known example of a practical cloaking device was on a Romulan bird-of-prey spacecraft which crossed the Romulan Neutral Zone in 2266, an incident depicted in [TOS: Balance of Terror].
Romulan bird-of-prey, its commander and his first officer, [TOS: Balance Of Terror]
An improved cloaking device used by Romulan warships in 2268 was of sufficient concern to Starfleet that Captain James T. Kirk and his First Officer, Spock, were sent on a covert Starfleet mission into Romulan territory to steal one such unit for analysis by Starfleet scientists. This incident is depicted in [TOS: The Enterprise Incident].
above 4 screenshots: [TOS: The Enterprise Incident]: USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is surrounded by Romulan ships; the Romulan commander is persuaded that Kirk is mentally ill; the Romulan commander forms a bond with Spock for, being a Vulcan he is distantly related to the Romulan people; Romulan Subcommander Tal receives the order from his commanding officer (captured by Spock) to attack the Enterprise
Although the Romulans continually improved their cloaking technology, Federation innovations such as the tachyon detection grid technique developed by Geordi La Forge in 2368 (see entry Tachyons in [Parallax], [Flashback], [The Swarm], [Future's End], [Coda]) served to reduce the tactical effectiveness of cloaked ships [TNG: Redemption]. Vessels employing a Romulan cloaking device could sometimes be detected with an antiproton beam [DS9: Defiant]. A cloaked ship radiated a slight subspace variance that was sometimes detectable at warp speeds. Before transporting or using weapons, the cloaking device had to be deactivated [TOS: Balance of Terror] [DS9: The Search]. Defensive shields were also inoperative when a ship was cloaked [TNG: Face of the Enemy].
Klingon battle cruiser crewed by Romulans, [TOS: The Enterprise Incident] - the Klingons provided the Romulans with Klingon battle cruisers when the two powers shared military technology and spacecraft designs during a brief alliance in 2268; (the alliance was in order to save television costs for new ship models)
Romulan warbird, [TNG: The Neutral Zone] and onwards; Starfleet first encountered this type of large powerful spacecraft, designated as D'deridex class, in 2364 when the Romulans violated the Romulan Neutral Zone in response to attacks by the Borg; also seen in 13 other [TNG] stories
the Q later known as Quinn
[#34 Death Wish] |
Incidentally, the Romulans fought a war with the Vulcans which lasted for a century. Neither side realised that the conflict had been ignited by a member of the Q Continuum; that Q was later imprisoned by his peers inside a comet, and he later came aboard USS Voyager, received asylum, took the name Quinn and committed suicide, [#34 Death Wish]. The war occurred at an unspecified date but must have been before 2072, when Quinn was imprisoned. |
An experimental cloaking device, based on an interphase generator, was developed by Romulan scientists and tested in 2368 [TNG: The Next Phase]. Possession of a cloaking device is illegal under Bajoran law [DS9: Profit and Loss]. In early 2371, the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire entered into an agreement granting Starfleet the use of a single Romulan cloaking device for use aboard the Starship Defiant. Use of this cloaking device was restricted to the Gamma Quadrant and then only in exchange for all of Starfleet's intelligence reports on the Dominion [DS9: Defiant] [DS9: Visionary]. [TNG: The Pegasus] establishes that the Federation relinquished the right to develop or use such devices under the Treaty of Algeron. Additionally, Gene Roddenberry once indicated that: "Our people are scientists and explorers - they don't go sneaking around."
USS Defiant, three views; this starship features in [DS9], but a Defiant-class starship is in the armada that witnesses the return of Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant in [#172 Endgame, Part Two] and (to be checked) in the Starfleet force which attacks the Romulan-held USS Prometheus in [#82 Message In A Bottle]
In late 2371, Tuvok presents four Maquis members of Voyager's crew with a tactical scenario on the holodeck where, as bridge crew, they are required to deal with, among other things, a Romulan warbird decloaking and attacking the ship [#16 Learning Curve].
Below: in a holographic training scenario, four Maquis Crewmen must cope with Romulan warbirds attacking Voyager, [#16 Learning Curve]:
on Voyager's the main viewscreen a Romulan warbird is seen decloaking |
Crewmen Kenneth Dalby (in command; in the captain's chair) and Henley |
Crewman Gerron |
Crewman Chell |
Voyager's polaron burst reveals the Kazon ship, [#11 State Of Flux] |
In 2371, in [#11 State Of Flux], Voyager discovers that the Kazon-Nistrim sect employ for their ships an unusual cloaking system which makes their ships appear to blend in with background scenes such as stars, planetary atmospheres, etc. The Voyager crew manage to "unmask" Kazon-Nistrim vessels by firing an active polaron beam, configured to induce an overload in their cloaking circuitry. See the entry Polarons in [#11 State Of Flux]. |
Optics is the science of light. Reflection and refraction are
the principal means of focusing light with mirrors and
lenses. Optical scientists often consider beams of light as bundles
of linear rays. Refraction changes the direction of a light
ray. A simple, convex glass lens changes the direction of a
light ray by virtue of its shape and the fact that the speed
of light within glass is different from the speed of light in air or
in a vacuum.
The Romulan warbird (actually called a bird-of-prey) in [TOS: Balance of Terror] presumably
used some kind of force field to bend light around the ship in
such a way that it was impossible to see the ship itself. We know today that gravity bends light, but it takes a very
strong gravitational field-such as the gravitational field of a
black hole-to bend light to a significant degree. Our Sun, the
most massive object in our solar system, barely bends a passing beam of light one thousandth of a degree.
A combination of geometry and special materials is used to render the U.S. B2 stealth bomber virtually invisible to radar. Composite materials and special coatings in the plane's fuselage and wings absorb much of an incoming radar wave. The
unusual shape of the aircraft deflects any residual radar return
signal away from the aircraft.
No stealth system is perfect, of course, (not even James Bond's car in the film 'Die Another Day'), but the B2 aircraft and its fighter-plane cousin, the F117 Nighthawk, are all but undetectabte by present-day radar. The planes are, however, readily visible in daytime; that's why current stealth aircraft are
limited to flying night missions. The U.S. Air Force is investigating coatings that might make an aircraft "blend in" with a variety of daytime background scenes. Special "electrochromic"
paints change optical properties with the application of electric
currents. Like a chameleon, an aircraft with an electrochromic
paint job could be programmed to take on the cotor of the sky,
cloud cover, or underlying ground cover (trees, water, sand,
etc.), rendering the plane very hard to see in daylight.
Combined with current stealth technology, such an aircraft
would be extremely difficult to detect visually or by radar.
This page: non-[Voyager] pictures are from TOSTW.
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