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The devices were first introduced and used by the Romulans in the original series episode Balance of Terror. The invisibility came as a surprise to the crew of the starship Enterprise, who considered it only a theoretical possibility. In a later episode, The Enterprise Incident, the Enterprise is sent on a mission to capture one of the devices.
It was next seen in being used by Klingons. To explain this, fans have speculated that as part of an earlier mentioned Romulan-Klingon alliance, the cloaking device was given to the Klingons in return for warp drive. Critics of this theory point out that it requires the Romulans to have fought an interstellar war without faster than light drives, although it is now known that the Romulans used a quantum singularity drive in which a micro-blackhole like object is used to propel ships to faster than light speeds. The Enterprise episode Minefield shows cloak-using Romulans far away from home. Certainly the alliance existed, and Romulans were seen using Klingon ships (leading some fans to theorise it was this ship type, the D-7 that was traded to the Romulans instead of a warp drive), as stated in The Enterprise Incident.
Cloaking is not perfect. In Balance of Terror, the Enterprise was still able to detect the Romulan ship on motion sensors, and in the episode The Search we learn that running at a high warp speed may allow detection. The biggest weakness is that the device has such high power demand, it must be deactivated for a ship to enter combat. Thus, an alert enemy can target it normally when the ship decloaks. A major plot element of was the invention of a new type of cloaking device that would allow firing whilst cloaked. However, when it was learned that ships using that type of cloaking device could be tracked via gas exhaust from the ship while firing, the technology soon fell out of regular use.
In the episode Redemption, the Federation discovers a way to use nets of tachyonA tachyon (from the Greek ταχύς takhús , meaning "swift") is a hypothetical particle that travels at superluminal velocity. Many strange properties have been attributed to tachyons, which also play a role in some beams to set traps for cloaking ships. As detection methods advance, so too do cloaking devices.
Many have wondered that after KirkJames Tiberius Kirk a fictional character in the Star Trek television series, was the captain of the starship Enterprise ( NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A). He was the leading character in the original series and the films based on it. James Kirk was played by ac captured a cloaking device, why the Federation have not used them on their ships. Gene RoddenberryStar Trek Eugene Wesley Roddenberry ( August 19, 1921 October 24, 1991), was born in El Paso, Texas, USA, spent his boyhood in Los Angeles, California, and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Star Trek''. Life and work Ro claimed that this is because Starfleet are scientists and not sneaks. Eventually the Federation signed a peace agreement in 2311, the Treaty of AlgeronThe Treaty of Algeron is an agreement referred to in Star Trek: The Next Generation between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire. Only mentioned twice in the series (in the TNG episodes "The Defector" and "Pegasus"), this treaty ra, in which they promised not to develop cloaking technology (The Pegasus.) Satisfied that the Federation would not develop threatening technology, the Romulans then turned their attentions inward, and for the most part withdrew from galactic affairs for nearly fifty years.
The Next Generation also featured phased cloaking experiments that differed from traditional cloaking techniques. In The Next Phase, Geordi LaForge and Ro LarenRo Laren is a fictional character on the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation''. She served aboard the Enterprise D as an ensign under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard during the 5th-7th years of their mission. Of Bajoran descent, she had are accidentally cloaked when helping a Romulan ship secretly testing phased cloaking. This technology was different in that it was capable of acting on a personal scale, did not require a cloaking device to stay cloaked, and allowed the cloaked people to pass through solid objects. Geordi and Ro were able to see and communicate with one another though and they discovered, with DataBrent Spiner as Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation Data played by Brent Spiner, is a character in the Star Trek fictional universe. He has served as the second officer and operations manager on the USS Enterprise D and USS Enterprise E. Data appeared's help, how to detect and deactivate such cloaking. "The Pegasus" also speculated on a phased cloaking experiment performed by Starfleet that had gone bad similar to Starfleet's previous experiments with a Transwarp drive using the new (at the time) Excelsior class starship.
In Deep Space Nine, the Romulan Empire allowed the Starfleet to place a cloaking device on board the USS Defiant. Originally, the Federation was only allowed to use the device in Gamma Quadrant space, in exchange for any Federation intelligence gathered from the Defiant. However, that restriction soon was regularly ignored by Captain Sisko, who used the device to hide from Klingon vessels during the brief breakdown in relations between those two powers. It was also discovered that the Dominion could detect a cloaked ship by scanning the area with an anti-proton beamAntimatter is matter that is composed of the antiparticles of those that constitute normal matter. In 1929 31, Paul Dirac put forward a theory that for each type of particle, there is an antiparticle for which each additive quantum number has the negative. It's not clear if the Federation is still prohibited from using cloaking technology, or if the two powers have since signed a new agreement regarding such technology.
In Nemesis the Remans developed a new cloaking device which was impenetrable to Federation scans. This was employed on Shinzon's ship the Scimitar. Like the Klingon ship in Star Trek VI, the Scimitar had the ability to fire while cloaked. The Reman ship's cloak was penetrated by telepathy.