Treaty Against Cloaking Devices

[Chris OFarrell]

To add a few more points;

The Federation is clearly *capable* of building cloaking technology by mid DS9. They maintained the cloaking device on the Defiant easily without the help of the Romulan commander -too bad they got rid of her character, she could have been interesting long term- including major repairs when needed. And the Romulans clearly didn't have any problems with the Federation having one to pull apart without someone looking over their shoulder.

That is probably because the Romulans are fully aware the UFP is *capable* of building cloaking technology, they just don't. Worst case scenario, there is no doubt they could get the specs from the Klingons for example without any problems, but then again, O'Brien and Dax were able to draw up specs for cloakable minefields easily in very tight time constants AND mass produce them.

I think its a case of the Romulans turning a blind eye when it suits them. To the best of our knowledge, they didn't raise a fuss about the Federation building a cloakable minefield, most probably because it was very much in their strategic interest for that minefield to be in place and as hard to get rid of as possible. They probably knew the Defiant used its cloak in the Alpha Quadrent 'illegally' more then once, but again ignored that fact because it suited them.

And while its true the Federation has come up with some methods to penetrate cloaking technology, they are far from perfect. The Tachyon detection grid requres a fleet of starships or sensor stations and MIGHT have some limited use in screening a planet or something, but really isn't too useful. The Dominions anti-proton trick was countered by Tom Riker in 'Defiant' with a magical plot device 'fix it' which was copied by the Tal'shiar and Obsidian order. We also have the Jem'hadar using some kind of enhanced 'long range tachyon sensor' to track cloaked BOP's, which we never saw again.

But against *single ships* sneaking around, cloaks are generally 100% effective. Its only when you have flotilas and fleets coming around that you can detect telltale signs of their presence, especially if they are at warp.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Chris' post brings to my mind an interesting idea - perhaps the continual existence of the treaty and its continual bending and breaking is strategically useful to both parties. After all, before the Borg, with the Klingons as allies, maybe continual Romulan agitation was the only thing which allowed Starfleet to keep up its budget - we know from TUC that the initial Klingon-Federation detente was enough that the possibility of mothballing the entire fleet was brought up in the halls of government as a serious possibility. It seems plausible to me that the Romulan Empire and Federation purposefully kept each other at arm's length, without enough antagonism to lead to war - to allow both the Federation to keep up its military expenditures and perhaps keep the Vulcans bound tight to Earth's government, as well as allowing Romulus to maintain its closed society without outside interference, with the Tal Shiar maintaining their Praetorian stranglehold on the reins of power. After all, when it suits them Romulus and Earth seem to be able to become perfectly amiable, but when that need diminishes there's a quick return to the status quo.

[Patrick Degan]

And while its true the Federation has come up with some methods to penetrate cloaking technology, they are far from perfect. The Tachyon detection grid requres a fleet of starships or sensor stations and MIGHT have some limited use in screening a planet or something, but really isn't too useful.

Not necessarily. It would be quite feasible to put tachyon sensors on automated buoys just as the Federation have with their gravitic sensor network.

[Batman]

If you deploy a positively ludicrous amount of buoys. The tachyon detection grid frankly shouldn't have worked to begin with because it relied on a ship physically intersecting a tachyon beam. Even with the comparatively low FTL speeds available via Warp drive, going AROUND any tachyon grid of believable size should be child's play.

[Gandalf]

And while its true the Federation has come up with some methods to penetrate cloaking technology, they are far from perfect. The Tachyon detection grid requres a fleet of starships or sensor stations and MIGHT have some limited use in screening a planet or something, but really isn't too useful. The Dominions anti-proton trick was countered by Tom Riker in 'Defiant' with a magical plot device 'fix it' which was copied by the Tal'shiar and Obsidian order. We also have the Jem'hadar using some kind of enhanced 'long range tachyon sensor' to track cloaked BOP's, which we never saw again.

The cloaking device does not make us completely invulnerable. You would know that if you had spent any time in the field. The Federation has littered their borders with subspace listening posts and gravitic sensors. They may even have a tachyon detection grid in operation, in which case they will know we're there. If we are discovered within Federation territory, it could be interpreted as an act of war.

So while there's a chance that a Warbird can make it through Federation space, it's not considered feasible even with access codes to their "sensor nets".