star trek cloaking technology

Cloaking device

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Kirk points out the blurry distortion of a cloaked Bird-of-Prey

A cloaking device , also known as a cloaking system , cloaking shield or invisibility screen , was a form of stealth technology that used selective bending of light (and other forms of energy) to render a starship or other objects completely invisible to the electromagnetic spectrum and most sensors . It was encountered in varying forms over the centuries. For a period of time, the Federation considered it the most strategically important Romulan technology . ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ", " The Enterprise Incident "; TNG : " The Pegasus ")

• 1.1 Early cloaking technology
• 1.2 Federation encounters with cloaking technology
• 1.3 Alternate reality
• 2.1 Penetrating the cloak
• 3.1 Firing when cloaked
• 3.2 The interphase cloak
• 4 Other cloaking device effects
• 5.1 Classes
• 5.2 Individual ships
• 6.1 Background information
• 6.2 Apocrypha
• 7 External links

History [ ]

Early cloaking technology [ ].

Suliban cloaking device

Humanity 's earliest-known encounter with cloaking technology came in the year 1986 in the Bering Sea . Admiral James T. Kirk , having traveled back in time, decloaked the Klingon Bird-of-Prey he was commanding to waylay and frighten some whale hunters from killing two humpback whales . ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

One of Humanity's earliest exposures to cloaking technology was in April of 2151 , when agents of the Cabal approached the starship Enterprise NX-01 undetected and kidnapped a Klingon national named Klaang from the ship's sickbay. The Suliban used cloaking devices on many of their ships, including the cell ships , stealth cruisers and salvage ships . The Suliban's cloaking technology had been given to them by their mysterious benefactor from the 28th century . ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Shockwave ", " Future Tense ")

During a battle near a Suliban helix in a class seven gas giant , Enterprise managed to capture a cell ship. Chief Engineer Charles Tucker III studied the device in his spare time, and in 2152 the ship was used to mount a rescue mission. Unfortunately, Tucker's experience with cloaking technology was somewhat limited and he accidentally doused his hand with the particles the ship used to generate the cloaking effect, temporarily rendering it invisible. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " The Communicator ")

Enterprise learned how to penetrate a Suliban cloaking device in March 2152, when the temporal agent Daniels explained how to construct a quantum beacon so that Enterprise could reveal the location of the cloaked stealth-cruiser responsible for the destruction of Paraagan II . ( ENT : " Shockwave ")

Romulan Bird-of-Prey cloaking

Enterprise was also responsible for an encounter with another organization that used stealth technology, the Romulan Star Empire . In April 2152, the ship accidentally entered a cloaked minefield protecting a Romulan -claimed planet. The quantum beacons proved effective against the minefield, but when two Birds-of-Prey suddenly arrived, Enterprise was not able to penetrate their more advanced cloaks. ( ENT : " Minefield ")

Federation encounters with cloaking technology [ ]

In 2256 , the USS Shenzhou encountered a cloaked Klingon vessel . Another cloaked Klingon vessel rammed the USS Europa to demonstrate the technology to the High Council during the Battle of the Binary Stars . ( DIS : " The Vulcan Hello ", " Battle at the Binary Stars ") The Klingon cloak used gravitational bending to conceal the ship from sensors and was a key tactical advantage for the Klingons during the Federation-Klingon War . At the Battle at Pahvo , the USS Discovery devised a method of penetrating the Klingon cloak, destroying the Sarcophagus . This put the two sides on a more even footing once again. ( DIS : " Into the Forest I Go ") Klingon cloaking devices required chimerium to function. ( PRO : " First Con-tact ")

By the 2260s , despite the fact that Romulans and Klingons had demonstrated such technology within their own respective empires , this wasn't the case within the Federation ; although the idea of practical invisibility was considered theoretically possible with selective bending of light, but at an enormous cost of power. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ")

In 2266 , the USS Enterprise encountered a Romulan Bird-of-Prey that used a cloaking device to cross the Romulan Neutral Zone and wipe out several Earth Outpost Stations . The Enterprise was able to defeat the Bird-of-Prey in battle, partially because the cloaked ship was still visible to tracking sensors, but there was no doubt that the Romulans possessed a practical invisibility screen. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ")

The improved Romulan cloak

In 2268 , the Federation learned that the Romulans had developed a new and improved cloaking device; one that even tracking sensors could not pick up and that posed a threat to the security of the Federation. On stardate 5027.3 , Starfleet Intelligence sent the Enterprise on a covert mission across the Neutral Zone to acquire the new cloak. The mission was a success, and Starfleet was able to procure an intact, modern Romulan cloaking device for study. The Federation also acquired a cloaking device from a captured Klingon Bird-of-Prey, dubbed the " HMS Bounty ", in 2286 . ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident "; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

A 23rd century Klingon cloaking device

By 2266, the Klingons had stopped using cloaking tech for a time, but by 2269 , cloaking devices had made a resurgence within the Klingon Empire . One of the first Klingon vessels to be equipped was the IKS Klothos , whose Commander, Kor , used it to great effect at the Battle of Caleb IV . The device was soon used aboard many other Klingon vessels, such as the Bird-of-Prey . At the time Kor acquired the cloaking device, only a handful of engineers in the Imperial Fleet knew how to operate them. ( TAS : " The Time Trap "; DS9 : " Once More Unto the Breach "; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

In 2311 , with the signing of the Treaty of Algeron , the Federation explicitly agreed not to develop or use cloaking technology. The Bajoran Provisional Government also outlawed cloaking devices, stating that the possession of such a device was highly illegal. ( TNG : " The Pegasus "; DS9 : " Profit and Loss ") Nonetheless, Section 31 , which operated on its own without Starfleet's knowledge or consent, utilize cloak technology on their ship. ( LD : " Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus ")

Quark's cloaking device

In 2370 , Quark illegally acquired a small cloaking device that was, as he put it, "not in the best of condition", but it "will work for about fifteen minutes." Initially intending to sell it, Quark instead installed it in the central engine core of a Cardassian shuttle , piloted by Natima Lang , to help the ship escape Deep Space 9 undetected. ( DS9 : " Profit and Loss ")

Following the outbreak of hostilities with the Dominion in late 2370, the Romulan Empire allowed the use of one of their own cloaks aboard the USS Defiant . Although this was originally limited to usage within the Gamma Quadrant , Captain Benjamin Sisko chose to ignore this limitation whenever it was convenient. In order to ensure that the cloak was used correctly, Sub-Commander T'Rul was assigned to the Defiant initially, during the ship's first mission with the cloak. In exchange, Starfleet had to provide all the intelligence it received on the Dominion. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " The Search, Part II ", " Visionary ")

Prior to the Cardassians joining the Dominion in 2373 and flushing the Klingons and Maquis out of their territory, the Klingon High Council decided to aid the Maquis in their fight against Cardassia . They provided the Maquis with thirty class-4 cloaking devices with the Klingons' understanding that they were to be used on Maquis ships. ( DS9 : " Blaze of Glory ")

In 2373 , Miles O'Brien , Jadzia Dax , and Rom employed cloaking technology to hide the self-replicating minefield blocking the Bajoran wormhole . Also, the Federation equipped one of their holoships with a cloak in 2375 . ( DS9 : " Call to Arms "; Star Trek: Insurrection )

A 24th century Klingon cloaking device

Although quite heavy, according to Rom, Klingon cloaking devices weigh less than Romulan cloaking devices, and while it took both himself and Quark to carry such a device ( DS9 : " The Emperor's New Cloak "). Jankom Pog , a young Tellarite was able to carry one himself. ( PRO : " First Con-tact ")

It was even possible for an entire planetary body to be rendered invisible. The planet Aldea was equipped with a powerful cloaking device that allowed itself to fully cloak. ( TNG : " When The Bough Breaks ")

In 2399 , Romulan Zhat Vash operatives decloaked and attacked Jean-Luc Picard and Dahj Asha . Later, Laris and Zhaban examined the security feed of the incident and it showed Picard was alone. They deduced the others had access to a personal cloaking device capable of rendering individuals invisible. ( PIC : " Remembrance ")

In 2401 , Jack Crusher and Sidney La Forge stole the cloaking device from HMS Bounty , now a museum ship, and equipped it on the USS Titan -A with Commodore Geordi La Forge 's help. The Titan used the cloaking device to rescue an away team from Daystrom Station . ( PIC : " Surrender ") Later, the crew who had managed to avoid Borg assimilation used it in their efforts to hold off an assimilated Starfleet before the cloaking device was destroyed by Sidney and Alandra La Forge while under Borg control. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

By the late 32nd century , vessels such as the Emerald Chain 's Viridian and Booker's ship were equipped with cloaking technology. The ability to cloak was also part of the refit to the Discovery in 3189 . ( DIS : " That Hope Is You, Part 1 ", " Su'Kal ") Starfleet vessels including the USS Discovery were subsequently refitted with cloaking technology, as the Treaty of Algeron was nullified with Vulcan-Romulan reunification and subsequent resignation from the Federation. ( DIS : " Unification III ")

Alternate reality [ ]

In the alternate reality caused by the temporal incursion of the Narada , the Federation was already bound to treaties banning cloaked weapons as early as 2259 . ( Star Trek Into Darkness display graphic )

Mechanics of a cloak [ ]

In order to function, most cloaking devices needed to be tied into a ship's deflector shield grid. ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident ") When activated, the cloaking device projects a cloaking field, also known as cloaking shields, around the vessel which selectively bend the path of light and sensors to render the vessel invisible and undetectable. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ") The shield can be expanded to cloak multiple vessels. ( TNG : " Devil's Due "; VOY : " Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy ") However, some models of cloaking device could work without being tied into anything, even having a limited power supply of their own. ( DS9 : " The Emperor's New Cloak ")

Most vessels could not use their weapons and deflector shields when cloaked. Ships of the Klingon D12-class , for example, were vulnerable to attack for two seconds when their shields automatically dropped as the cloaking field formed. ( TNG : " Face Of The Enemy "; Star Trek Generations ) Ships like the Scimitar with more advanced cloaking technology however did not have this problem, as it had primary and secondary shields and weapon systems that could remain online while the ship was cloaked. ( Star Trek Nemesis )

• Projection matrix
• Tetryon compositor

Penetrating the cloak [ ]

Ever since the initial introduction of the cloaking device, there was an ongoing race between the development of new cloaking technologies and the development of new detection systems that could defeat them.

Quantum beacon deployed

Starfleet's earliest method of penetrating cloaks was developed in 2152, when Daniels provided Enterprise with 31st century quantum beacons so they could locate a Suliban stealth-cruiser. These devices also proved effective against the Romulan cloaking devices used on mines but were ineffective against the Bird-of-Prey cloaking devices. ( ENT : " Shockwave ", " Minefield ")

The cloak used by the Sarcophagus in 2256 used a massive gravitational field to bend light and electromagnetic radiation around the ship, rendering it invisible to sensors . However, imperfections in the field led to near-imperceptible shifts in the background electromagnetic field . Using portable sensor devices surreptitiously planted on the Sarcophagus , Discovery made 133 micro-jumps with the aid of its spore drive , taking readings from multiple vectors in a matter of minutes. Using these readings, Discovery analyzed the correlation between the cloak's field and the background electromagnetic field, allowing the formulation of an algorithm that exposed the enemy ship's position. This ultimately led to the Sarcophagus ' destruction when Discovery fired at the cloaked vessel which was unable to return fire or raise shields while under cloak. ( DIS : " Into the Forest I Go ")

The cloak used by the Romulan Bird-of-Prey that crossed the Neutral Zone in 2266 was less than perfect, allowing a starship to pick up a blip on its motion tracking sensors. This blip was not accurate enough for targeting of weapons and only appeared when the vessel moved, but it was enough to help the Enterprise locate the enemy vessel. By 2268, advances in Romulan technology had removed the problem, forcing Starfleet to steal a model of the new cloak. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ", " The Enterprise Incident ")

Versions of the cloak used by the Klingons in the late 23rd century also had their flaws. Cloaked D7-class battle cruisers could be detected using a metaphasic sweep . ( VOY : " Prophecy ") Energy "distortions", manifesting themselves most often as refracting visible light energy from surrounding stellar objects very near the cloaked ship's outline, appearing as a "shimmering" effect, while cloaked and prior to decloaking, could give away a cloaked ship when observed. ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ) In 2293 , the USS Enterprise -A developed a method of using a photon torpedo to track the plasma exhaust of a cloaked ship. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

In the 24th century , the Federation protected its borders from cloaked Romulan incursion by a gravitic sensor net . In 2368 , Geordi La Forge developed a technique called the tachyon detection grid that used tachyon beams transmitted between different points to expose cloaked objects. Soon, this had been implemented on the Federation's border outposts as well as in Klingon space. ( TNG : " Redemption II ", " Face Of The Enemy "; DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising ")

In 2371 , it was not commonly understood by Starfleet personnel that cloaked ships radiate a slight subspace variance at warp speeds. These variances typically vanished once the vessel drops out of warp. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ") If a cloaked ship exceeded its maximum propulsion capacity, it would not be able to fully cloak, and would appear on navigational sensors as a sensor echo . ( TNG : " Tin Man ")

Using modified cloaks, a combined fleet of Romulan and Cardassian warships attempted to conduct a sneak attack on Founders' homeworld in 2371. They determined that as long as their fleet traveled under the speed of warp 6 , their warp signatures would remain undetected, even while under cloak. This modification, however, did not prevent the fleet from being detected by the sensors aboard Deep Space 9 . In this case, the cloaked fleet appeared as high concentrations of tetryon particles. ( DS9 : " The Die is Cast ")

Decloaking ships also created a buildup of tachyon particles. ( DS9 : " By Inferno's Light ")

Sensors aboard Deep Space 9 were also able to detect an entire nearby fleet of cloaked Klingon vessels jumping to warp as "a huge distortion wave in subspace", and Miles O'Brien was able to deduce their heading from the vector of the subspace disturbance. ( DS9 : " The Way of the Warrior ")

The Dominion , as well as the Cardassians, also possessed many methods of breaking through cloaking fields, including a long-range tachyon scanner and an antiproton beam . ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " Once More Unto the Breach ") However, these methods were not always effective as Thomas Riker was able to partially counteract the antiproton beam scanning method by adjusting the cloak's resonance frequency. ( DS9 : " Defiant ")

The Dominion's array in the Argolis Cluster could detect cloaked ships up to two light years away and required approaching the array by navigating the cluster's Gravimetric shear and Gravimetric distortion . ( DS9 : " Behind the Lines ")

The Tachyon scan , also known as a tachyon sweep or tachyon signal, was another method of detecting cloaked ships. ( TNG : " Redemption II ", " Face Of The Enemy "; DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising "; VOY : " Flashback ", " Parallax "; Star Trek Nemesis )

Improvements in cloaking technology [ ]

Firing when cloaked [ ].

Due to the enormous amount of power required to generate a cloaking field, there was, by and large, not enough power available to also power the weapons and shields. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ") When the Romulan cloaking device was first installed on the USS Defiant , the ship even had to decloak to use the transporter . ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ") However, there were several times when advances in cloaking technology rendered these tactical inefficiencies untrue.

Prototype Bird-of-Prey, firing while cloaked

For example, in 2293 , the Klingons developed a prototype Bird-of-Prey capable of firing photon torpedoes when cloaked . This ship, commanded by General Chang , was used to secretly attack Kronos One in such a way that it appeared the USS Enterprise -A was responsible, implicating Enterprise commanding officer James T. Kirk in the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon . Fortunately for galactic peace, the Enterprise -A was able to deduce the existence of Chang's ship and devise a way to penetrate its cloak by tracking its plasma exhaust with new sensors for analyzing gaseous anomalies. Using a photon torpedo modified to home in on and target that plasma exhaust, the prototype ship was destroyed by the Enterprise -A and the USS Excelsior over Khitomer . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

Another advanced cloak was encountered in 2379 . The Reman warbird Scimitar employed a new type of "perfect" cloaking device that did not give off any tachyon emissions or residual antiprotons , making the Scimitar completely undetectable while cloaked. It allowed the ship to fire weapons and use shields while cloaked, as well as allow the ship to drop the cloak protecting certain quadrants of the ship without de-cloaking the entire ship at once. The effectiveness of this technology was demonstrated when the Scimitar engaged the USS Enterprise -E , the Valdore , and another warbird in the Bassen Rift , where it was able to cripple both warbirds without suffering any significant damage. Only through repeated blind targeting, barrages of phasers and torpedoes, and the use of telepathic triangulation by Commander Deanna Troi , was the Enterprise -E able to overcome the Scimitar 's cloak. ( Star Trek Nemesis )

In addition, the mirror universe ISS Enterprise was able to fire weapons while cloaked using a Suliban cloaking device. However, the cloak did appear to momentarily fail a few seconds after Enterprise launched torpedoes, perhaps indicating that the Imperial ship had insufficient power for simultaneous use of weapons and cloak. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

In an alternate future , Klingon attack cruisers apparently had the ability to fire while cloaked, as they were able to damage the USS Pasteur before decloaking. ( TNG : " All Good Things... ")

The interphase cloak [ ]

Phasing cloak device

The Enterprise -D decloaking in front of a Romulan warbird

The Treaty of Algeron did not stop Starfleet Intelligence from secretly and illegally developing the phasing cloaking device , a device which not only rendered a starship invisible, but also allowed it to pass through solid matter unimpeded. The device was lost in 2358 when the test bed vessel, the USS Pegasus , was presumed destroyed by a warp core breach in a mutiny by members of the crew concerned about the legality of the test. In 2370 , the Pegasus was found not to have been destroyed and the existence of the illegal device was made public to the Romulans. ( TNG : " The Pegasus ")

In the early 2360s , the Klingon Empire experimented with interphase cloaking technology but the research was abandoned due to several accidents.

In 2368 , the Romulans also unsuccessfully experimented with interphase cloaking technology, developing an interphase generator combined with a molecular phase inverter . The USS Enterprise -D had received a distress signal from the test bed vessel and Captain Picard ordered an away team sent over to assist. During the mission, due to a malfunction in the device, Ensign Ro Laren and Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge were phase-cloaked during beam-out and rematerialized on different parts of the Enterprise . After attempting to bring them back, the crew gave up, believing them dead. Eventually, Ro and La Forge succeeded in revealing what had happened to them to the crew and Lieutenant Commander Data managed to reverse the effects of the cloak, bringing them back into phase. ( TNG : " The Next Phase ")

Other cloaking device effects [ ]

The use of cloaking devices occasionally led to unintended effects. The cloaking device of Aldea caused significant damage to the planet 's ionosphere and ozone layer , leading to increased radiation on the surface and sterility among the Aldeans . ( TNG : " When The Bough Breaks ")

In 2371 , chroniton particles generated by the Romulan cloaking device aboard the USS Defiant became lodged in the ship's ablative armor matrix. These particles interacted with the ship's transporter systems, resulting in the accidental transport of several officers backwards through time to early 21st century Earth . ( DS9 : " Past Tense, Part I ")

In 2372 , a computer character manifesting itself as fear was offered a cloaking device as a means of keeping its program hidden from future intrusion. To the request, it replied " I already have a cloaking device, thank you anyway. " The character's "cloaking device" immediately wrapped the character in a wool cloak. ( VOY : " The Thaw ")

Ships utilizing cloaking devices [ ]

Classes [ ].

• B'rel -class ( Klingon Defense Force )
• Bird-of-Prey (22nd century) ( Romulan Star Empire )
• Bird-of-Prey (23rd century) ( Romulan Star Empire )
• Cylindrical type
• Spherical type
• D'deridex -class ( Romulan Star Empire )
• D7-class ( Romulan Star Empire )
• D12-class ( Klingon Defense Force )
• Kaplan F17 Patrol Frigate ( Confederation of Earth )
• K'vort -class ( Klingon Defense Force )
• Negh'Var warship ( Klingon Defense Force )
• Romulan shuttle ( Romulan Star Empire )
• Stealth cruiser (Suliban Cabal)
• Valdore -type ( Romulan Star Empire )
• Vor'cha -class ( Klingon Defense Force )

Individual ships [ ]

The Defiant decloaks

• Booker's ship ( Kwejian courier )
• USS Defiant ( Federation Starfleet )
• USS Discovery ( Federation Starfleet )
• ISS Enterprise ( Terran Empire )
• Federation holoship ( Federation Starfleet )
• IKS Klothos ( Klingon Defense Force )
• Koranak ( Cardassian Obsidian Order )
• Nightingale ( Kraylor )
• USS Pegasus ( Federation Starfleet )
• Regent's flagship ( Klingon-Cardassian Alliance )
• Sarcophagus ( Klingon House of Kor )
• Scimitar ( Reman )
• Viridian ( Emerald Chain )
• Voth city ship ( Voth )
• Voth research vessel ( Voth )
• Krenim weapon ship ( Krenim Imperium )
• Aldea ( Aldeans )
• Delphic Expanse spheres ( Sphere-Builders )
• Echo Papa 607 ( Minosian )
• Hierarchy ships ( Hierarchy )
• Isolation suits ( Federation Starfleet )
• Self-replicating mines ( Federation Starfleet )
• Srivani vessels ( Srivani )
• Tars Lamora
• Xyrillian starship ( Xyrillians )

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

The first time that the effect of a cloaked ship was shown was in TOS : " Balance of Terror ". In that episode's revised final draft script, the effect was described as "a nebulous, undefined shimmer".

There is a running discrepancy as to whether or not the mirror universe has cloaking devices. While they have been seen in early mirror episodes of DS9, the last "mirror" episode featured a plot revolving around the "fact" that the technology didn't exist in the mirror universe.

There has been some controversy over the appearance of the cloaking device in Star Trek: Enterprise . Though "Balance of Terror" seems to make it reasonably clear that that was the first time such a device had been encountered, early Enterprise episodes skirted very close to violating this by referring to the invisibility technology seen in ENT : " Broken Bow " and " Unexpected " as stealth technology; presumably, this was intended to be a primitive precursor to cloaking, utilizing some method other than the selective bending of light.

Unfortunately, the episode " Shockwave " features several explicit references to the Suliban stealth technology as cloaking. " Minefield " further complicated the problem by showing that the Romulans had cloaking technology in the 22nd century , making some possible justifications no longer workable. Unfortunately, there is no obvious way to reconcile the discrepancies, except to force an interpretation of Spock's words (" Invisibility is theoretically possible, Captain – with selective bending of light. But the power cost is enormous. They may have solved that problem. ") to mean that the Federation thought invisibility was impossible because all previous forms of cloaking had been penetrated. Then again, Spock's notions regarding this particular matter may not represent the totality of Starfleet's expertise, as even he admits, in TOS : " The Devil in the Dark ", that he is not as qualified as Mr. Scott is when it comes to engineering.

Several staff writers on Star Trek: Enterprise – among them Producer Michael Sussman – believed it was a mistake to give cloaking technology to 22nd century Romulans. Season Four showrunner and Co-Executive Producer Manny Coto decided that Romulan ships would not have cloaks in any subsequent encounters. ( Information provided by Mike Sussman )

In a deleted scene from Star Trek , after the Narada is disabled by the USS Kelvin 's attack in 2233 , ten Klingon warbirds decloak and surround Nero 's ship.

According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Journal , the Romulan cloaking device was acquired by the Klingons as an exchange for several D7-class battle cruisers given to the Romulans during the Romulan-Klingon Alliance . According to Worlds of the Federation , the Romulans developed the first cloaking technology and traded it to the Klingons in exchange for warp drive technology – an exchange which both sides bitterly regretted in the following years, when they became deadly enemies.

According to the Klingon Bird-of-Prey Owner' Workshop Manual , the Romulans gave the Klingons four cloaking devices as part of the alliance deal. These devices needed extensive reengineering and soon diverged after the breaking of the alliance. The source also says that the cloaking device works by generating a quantum phase bubble that teleports EM radiation to the other side of the cloaking field and that ships cannot normally fire when cloaked due to the field interfering with weapon accuracy (with the risk that the weapons may even reflect back onto the firing ship). The Romulans preferred to experiment with phasing cloaks while the Klingons focused on firing while cloaked.

Apocrypha [ ]

Several apocryphal sources, including Diane Duane 's novel The Romulan Way , also credit Romulans with the development of the first cloaking technology, and state that the Klingons acquired it in trade with the Romulans, during their tenuous alliance.

In apocrypha, the discrepancy is explained in the ENT novel The Good That Men Do . The 22nd century Birds-of-Prey were only used as testbeds for early prototype cloaking-devices. After an antimatter containment failure in one test systems, their use was abandoned, and it took decades for the Romulans to develop a successful cloaking system. In contrast, the video game Star Trek: Legacy depicts the use of cloaking devices amongst the Romulan fleet as being commonplace during the Earth-Romulan War .

The 2017 Star Trek: Discovery comic book series The Light of Kahless establishes in its second issue that scientists from the House of T'Kuvma successfully created cloaking technology approximately one hundred years prior to the 2250s . This prototype device was then installed aboard the house flagship Sarcophagus , and successfully deployed against Starfleet in 2256 during the Battle of the Binary Stars . This series was co-written by TV series story editor (and Star Trek novelist) Kirsten Beyer .

In the 2013 Star Trek video game, the Gorn of the alternate reality are shown to possess personal cloaking devices.

Star Trek Online contains a statement, made by Tiaru Jarok, that Klingons stole cloaking technology from the Romulans. " First the Klingons, now the Borg, " she comments. " Does everyone steal cloaking technology from us? "

External links [ ]

• Cloaking device at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Cloaking device at Wikipedia
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

The Cloaking Devices Of Star Trek Explained

I n Star Trek, cloaking devices allow ships and other objects to become undetectable-both visually and to sensors. But how does this technology work and how has it been thwarted? We’re breaking it all down for you here.

Starting from a real-world perspective, Star Trek’s cloaking devices were first developed (though not yet named as such) by screenwriter Paul Schneider for the Original Series “Balance of Terror,” which was conceived as a space-faring version of submarine movies like Run Silent, Run Deep and The Enemy Below .

The idea was to give starships a similar feature to submarines submerging to stay out of enemy radar. The essential idea-”selective bending of light”-held and was later referred to with the term “cloaking device” by D.C. Fontana in her script for “The Enterprise Incident.”

Cloaking devices in Star Trek function by bending light at the expense of massive amounts of energy.

In terms of how Star Trek’s cloaking device might actually work, the essential principle of bending light describes the visual aspect quite well. Essentially, instead of reflecting and absorbing light, cloaked ships bend light so that it appears to pass through them. Warp drives already bend space itself and while the same technology is not used in cloaking, its existence does provide some basis to the idea that such bending could be possible.

As the Star Trek episode “Balance of Terror” first established, however, cloaking devices require an enormous amount of energy, which results in a loss of certain functions like weapons, shields, and transporters. This would likely be the case in any real-world cloaking scenario.

Current attempts to create this technology have resulted in the ability to bend light in at least one wavelength in the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum around an object. However, the capacity to do more would require significant energy consumption.

The first cloaking device in Star Trek appeared in The Original Series episode, “Balance of Terror.”

But Star Trek’s ships don’t just use visible light to be able to see in space. Their sensors can detect a variety of wavelengths and particles, meaning cloaking devices have to evade much more than sight. They, therefore, have to bend both light and other EM radiation to throw sensors off.

Star Trek’s cloaking devices are usually incorporated into the shield systems of a vessel. This allows the device to throw up a cloaking field (sometimes called “cloaking shields”) around the vessel that will bend light and EM radiation around the ship. The result is a stealth mode that can allow a ship to follow, sneak up on, or surprise attack another vessel.

There are, however, ways Star Trek’s various crews have found to get around cloaking devices, which are most often employed by Romulans, Klingons , and Suliban. Captain Archer’s timeline provided his crew with 31st-century quantum beacons that allowed detection through cloaks on Suliban ships, and Romulan cloaks on mines.

Later, the USS Discovery encountered a Klingon vessel called the Sarcophagus that used a large gravitational field as a cloak, imperfections in which provided barely perceptible shifts in background EM radiation that allowed for detection of the vessel.

Detecting cloaked ships in Star Trek is possible, from detecting tachyon particles to monitoring EM radiation.

Later in the Star Trek timeline, the Enterprise detected cloaked vessels via sensor blips that gave the rough location of a cloaked ship, energy distortions, and later the plasma exhaust of a cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey ( Star Trek VI ). That Bird of Prey employed an advancement in cloaking technology that allowed the vessel to fire its weapons while cloaked. Ultimately, a plasma-exhaust-seeking photon torpedo was able to bring it down.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , a cloaked ship was detected via a buildup of tachyon particles, while other distortions associated with warp drive have been used, such as tiny subspace variances that are present when a cloaked ship goes to warp.

That series also introduced the USS Defiant, the first Starfleet vessel to regularly utilize cloaking technology. While interphase cloaking was developed that would allow a vessel to pass through solid matter, the technology was deemed far too dangerous by both the Federation (which had developed it illegally) and the Klingons.

Overall, Star Trek’s cloaking technology bears a strong resemblance to the technology currently being developed now and could conceivably exist in the future. Currently, though, cloaking technology is proving to be as elusive as a Romulan Warbird.

The post The Cloaking Devices Of Star Trek Explained appeared first on GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT .

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A Brief History of the Real-Life Invisibility Cloak

By the week | mar 29, 2013.

By Chris Gayomali

The evolution of the cloaking device, from its origins in  Star Trek  fantasy to intricate new metamaterials.

March 27, 1958

Run Silent, Run Deep , a World War II naval drama starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, reportedly inspires  Star Trek  screenwriter Paul Schneider to mull a space-exploration equivalent to a submarine submerging underwater. What to do...

Dec. 15, 1966

Invisibility technology makes its  Star Trek  debut in episode 14, "Balance of Terror," when a Romulan Bird of Prey equipped with a cloaking device attacks the Starship Enterprise.

Sept. 27, 1968

In episode 59, "The Enterprise Incident," the technology  finally gets a name : It's called a "cloaking device." The Trekkie trope inevitably becomes a sci-fi staple, appearing (and disappearing?) in everything from  Dr. Who  to  Predator  to  Stargate .

June 26, 1997 

A divorced mother of a young child quietly publishes a children's book about a young orphan who receives an invisibility cloak as a Christmas present. Only 1,000 copies of  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone  are printed.

Physicists from Duke University unveil  the world's first-ever invisibility cloak . (Thanks, J.K. Rowling!) The elaborate set-up was created using metamaterials, which are capable of manipulating wavelengths — like light — in ways that aren't found in nature. The catch? This "cloak" only works on microwaves and in two dimensions.

The British military tests something frightening: An invisible tank, which uses cameras and projectors to beam the surrounding landscape onto the vehicle's hull.  Says one soldier  who was apparently at the test trials: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees — but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."

Summer 2008

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley,  use metamaterials  to change the natural direction of visible and near-infrared light in three dimensions. Developed by Xiang Zhang, a professor at Berkeley's Nanoscope Science and Engineering Center, the light-bending concept is likened to viewing a distorted straw through a glass of water.

The U.S. Army expresses interest in using metamaterials to cloak its vehicles, soldiers, and other weapons, thereby allowing them to bypass radar and sensors. Dr. Richard Hammond at the Army Research Office  thinks  the military is about two or three years away from manufacturing actual cloaking devices. 

U.C. Berkeley's Zhang engineers a "carpet cloak" from nanostructured silicon that successfully hides small objects from the near-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.  Zhang says  the cloak "should be upwardly scalable," meaning that, in theory, it could work in the visible spectrum to distort objects from view.

Across the Atlantic, military interest in cloaking devices continues to build. This time, a lecturer at the British Royal Navy College considers "the next generation of stealth ships that could be virtually invisible to the naked eye, roaming radars, and heat-seeking missiles,"  says  Gizmag . 

Scientists at Tufts and Boston universities create  a tiny invisibility cloak  capable of manipulating terahertz waves. One problem: This new class of metamaterial was crafted by etching 10,000 gold resonators onto a 1 cm square of silk. Luxury! 

Nature  reports that two scientists — one based in Singapore, one based in London — develop a more effective metamaterial  from calcite crystals , which are much cheaper than, well, gold-etched silk.

Now we have video! University of Texas researchers demo a real-life invisibility cloak that uses carbon nanotubes.

March 5, 2012

Mercedes  debuts  an "invisible car" as part of a promotional stunt. Okay, it's not really invisible, but the vehicle uses cameras and moving images the same way that the British tank mentioned above does.

November 2012

Researchers from Duke University  create a "flawless" invisibility cloak capable of completely hiding tiny objects, in this case a 7.5 by 1 cm cylinder. So what constitutes a flawless cloak? This one channels incident light completely around an object. Voilà — pristine, perfect invisibility.

The biggest problem with all the aforementioned cloaking devices is that they're big, bulky, and cumbersome. They need lab desks to work. But not for much longer: University of Texas, Austin researchers have created an ultra-thin material that's just 0.15 mm thick. Now,  says Sebastian Anthony at  ExtremeTech , "it's really only a matter of time until an actual invisibility cloak is realized."

Sources:  ABC News ,  U.C. Berkeley ,  The Daily Mail ,  Extreme Tech ,  Gizmag ,  The Guardian ,  The Huffington Post ,  National Geographic ,  Princeton University ,  Science Daily ,  Wired

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How One Prisoner's Hand-Written Petition  Won Him a Supreme Court Cas e

A brief history of the real-life invisibility cloak

The evolution of the cloaking device, from its origins in Star Trek fantasy to intricate new metamaterials

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Run Silent, Run Deep , a World War II naval drama starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, reportedly inspires Star Trek screenwriter Paul Schneider to mull a space-exploration equivalent to a submarine submerging underwater. What to do...

Dec. 15, 1966

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Invisibility technology makes its Star Trek debut in episode 14, "Balance of Terror," when a Romulan Bird of Prey equipped with a cloaking device attacks the Starship Enterprise.

Sept. 27, 1968

In episode 59, "The Enterprise Incident," the technology finally gets a name : It's called a "cloaking device." The Trekkie trope inevitably becomes a sci-fi staple, appearing (and disappearing?) in everything from Dr. Who to Predator to Stargate .

June 26, 1997

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A divorced mother of a young child quietly publishes a children's book about a young orphan who receives an invisibility cloak as a Christmas present. Only 1,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are printed.

Physicists from Duke University unveil the world's first-ever invisibility cloak . (Thanks, J.K. Rowling!) The elaborate set-up was created using metamaterials, which are capable of manipulating wavelengths — like light — in ways that aren't found in nature. The catch? This "cloak" only works on microwaves and in two dimensions.

The British military tests something frightening: An invisible tank, which uses cameras and projectors to beam the surrounding landscape onto the vehicle's hull. Says one soldier who was apparently at the test trials: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees — but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."

Summer 2008

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, use metamaterials to change the natural direction of visible and near-infrared light in three dimensions. Developed by Xiang Zhang, a professor at Berkeley's Nanoscope Science and Engineering Center, the light-bending concept is likened to viewing a distorted straw through a glass of water.

The U.S. Army expresses interest in using metamaterials to cloak its vehicles, soldiers, and other weapons, thereby allowing them to bypass radar and sensors. Dr. Richard Hammond at the Army Research Office thinks the military is about two or three years away from manufacturing actual cloaking devices.

U.C. Berkeley's Zhang engineers a "carpet cloak" from nanostructured silicon that successfully hides small objects from the near-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Zhang says the cloak "should be upwardly scalable," meaning that, in theory, it could work in the visible spectrum to distort objects from view.

Across the Atlantic, military interest in cloaking devices continues to build. This time, a lecturer at the British Royal Navy College considers "the next generation of stealth ships that could be virtually invisible to the naked eye, roaming radars, and heat-seeking missiles," says Gizmag .

Scientists at Tufts and Boston universities create a tiny invisibility cloak capable of manipulating terahertz waves. One problem: This new class of metamaterial was crafted by etching 10,000 gold resonators onto a 1 cm square of silk. Luxury!

Nature reports that two scientists — one based in Singapore, one based in London — develop a more effective metamaterial from calcitite crystals , which are much cheaper than, well, gold-etched silk.

Now we have video! University of Texas researchers demo a real-life invisibility cloak that uses carbon nanotubes.

March 5, 2012

Mercedes debuts an "invisible car" as part of a promotional stunt. Okay, it's not really invisible, but the vehicle uses cameras and moving images the same way that the British tank mentioned above does.

November 2012

Researchers from Duke University create a "flawless" invisibility cloak capable of completely hiding tiny objects, in this case a 7.5 by 1 cm cylinder. So what constitutes a flawless cloak? This one channels incident light completely around an object. Voilà — pristine, perfect invisibility.

The biggest problem with all the aforementioned cloaking devices is that they're big, bulky, and cumbersome. They need lab desks to work. But not for much longer: University of Texas, Austin researchers have created an ultra-thin material that's just 0.15 mm thick. Now, says Sebastian Anthony at ExtremeTech , "it's really only a matter of time until an actual invisibility cloak is realized."

Sources: ABC News , U.C. Berkeley , The Daily Mail , Extreme Tech , Gizmag , The Guardian , The Huffington Post , National Geographic , Princeton University , Science Daily , Wired

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Five methods for turning invisible, ranked by the inventor of a real-life invisibility cloak

The captain and crew on the bridge of the starship Enterprise are tense as they track a Romulan ship that has just attacked a Starfleet outpost. The Romulans have developed a new technology: an invisibility cloak, which has made them undetectable to the Enterprise’s sensors. The crew must now figure out how to defeat their adversary, which means understanding the invisibility cloak and exploiting any weaknesses the technology may possess.

Those familiar with Star Trek will recognize the invisibility device as the Romulan cloak, and the ensuing drama that plays out as the episode “Balance of Terror” from the original Star Trek series. But the Star Trek cloaking technology isn’t just the stuff of fairy tales: It actually has strong links to real-world science.

When fictional future technologies are extrapolated from today’s scientific advancements, we begin to feel that they may one day actually be possible. Presented with a plausible hypothesis, we can explore how a device or technological advance might affect our world long before it is a reality; satellites, robots, space travel, video phones, and submarines all famously appeared in the science-fiction realm before debuting in the real world.

Invisibility has been a recurring and popular theme in the realm of science fiction for decades. May it one day become real, too? Here is a quick survey of some of pop culture’s approaches to invisibility and the hard science behind them.

First, let’s start with the anti-science. Fantasy is a genre closely related to science fiction, except it encourages us to imagine new capabilities with no ties to fact. It is filled with examples of invisibility, from Bilbo Baggins’s ring in The Hobbit to Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. We don’t need to know the details of how magic works to believe it, but even in fantasy worlds, we find ourselves more engaged if there are rules that govern the magic.

For example, when it comes to Harry’s invisibility cloak, to completely cover yourself and not look like a disembodied head, you obviously need to pull the cloak over your whole body. However, this doesn’t strike your physical presence from space, as seen by how the wearer remains visible on the Marauder’s Map, and it becomes less effective over time as it ages and grows thin. These limitations provide a sense of reality, but if we want to really believe, we should look to invisibility methods that are motivated by science.

4. Chemistry

In The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, the main character consumes some sort of chemical that changes his cellular chemistry. This makes him transparent—and drives him mad in the process. This approach to invisibility is not entirely fictional. Light moves in a straight line in any medium. However, when it passes from one medium to another, it reflects or refracts. For an object to be invisible, it would need to have the exact optical properties of the medium in which it is embedded.

We can see examples of this in nature. There are species of animals that are nearly transparent to light , like some jellyfish and other sea creatures. The trick is that these sea creatures are always immersed in water, and are also mostly composed of water, so light travels through the animal in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish from water.

Humans are also mostly water, but we live in air. If we wanted to be invisible, light would have to pass through us as if it passed through air—and that would be very hard to do. For this to be possible, every cell in our body would have to change the way it interacts with light. Since the way our cells absorb and scatter light is ultimately linked to biological function, it’s not very likely that we’ll be able to make a living human body transparent through chemistry. (Madness would probably be the least of our worries.)

3. Dynamic Camouflage

Related to invisibility is the closely related concept of camouflage, in which an object is rendered indistinguishable from its environment. This is a far more likely path to making things disappear.

As magicians and con artists have long known, the eye is easily fooled. Quite effective invisibility could be achieved by photographing the background behind an object and projecting that background onto the front of the object, for example.

Many science-fiction invisibility cloaks could be explained as a variation on this theme. In the movie Predator , Arnold Schwarzenegger battles an alien that wears a suit enabling it to blend into the jungle background. As is revealed during the story (spoiler alert), the cloaking is not perfect: You can see an outline of the alien, through which a somewhat distorted view of the jungle can be seen, and the suit requires a power source to maintain the cloaking. These details would all be consistent with some sort of advanced projection device, putting the Predator cloak in the realm of real-life possibility.

2. Bending space/time

As the Star Trek crew grapples to understand the Romulan cloak, their science officer, Spock, suggests that “invisibility is theoretically possible with selective bending of light.” He postulates that the cloaking device causes light to detour around the ship, and since the light never strikes it, the ship therefore cannot be seen. Instead, it appears as empty space, with no light reflected and no shadow.

This theory is backed up by physics. In free space, light travels in a straight line. But it is theoretically possible to bend or warp space itself , which would then pull light along its new curve. This warping of space is possible because of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which states that mass or energy can modify the fabric of space and time. The writers of Star Trek used general relativity as the basis of many of their speculative technologies, including tractor beams, warp drives, and the Romulan cloak.

The bending of light by the sun was first demonstrated in 1919 by Arthur Eddington during an eclipse, but bending space ourselves is not so easy. It takes an enormous amount of matter or energy to warp space, like the presence of a star or a black hole. We do not yet know how to obtain and control that much energy, and so cloaking by diverting light is still a distant prospect. This also means that the Invisible Woman—Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four universe—must remain in the realm of fiction for the foreseeable future.

1. Cloaking 

The idea of making something invisible by bending light is so captivating that, despite the obstacles, scientists continue their attempts to create the effect. And that includes me.

Our group at Duke University, in collaboration with theoretical physicist Sir John Pendry, suggested and later demonstrated one method using a special type of material called a “metamaterial.” Metamaterials are human-made materials with little circuit-like elements—conducting rings and wires, for example—that mimic the properties of atoms and molecules of conventional materials.

Rather than physically warping space, we can use the idea of warping space to find a recipe for a material that will have the same effect. In this way, we can design an invisibility cloak just by picturing the way we would like waves to circulate around the cloaked object. This is a technique called “transformation optics.”

Light—or, in the case of our experiment , microwaves—are redirected in a metamaterial cloak, appearing to bend or flow around the cloaked object. They are then restored on the other side as if they had passed through empty space. The metamaterial cloak is a real device that forces light to flow exactly as it might around a cloaked Romulan ship, which means this type of invisibility device is plausible.

Science fiction helps us begin to understand how things that don’t exist yet might change the future of humanity. In fantasy, we must often suspend our belief of what is scientifically possible; in science-fiction, we challenge it. The question is not if something is possible, but more if it is feasible . Sometimes that smallest feasibility can eventually be transformed into reality, and when that happens, we will be ready for it, thanks to science-fiction.

As the great science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke wrote, advanced technology can seem indistinguishable from magic.

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Cloaking Devices: Vanishing Into Thin Space

• First Online: 25 August 2016

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• Mark E. Lasbury 2  

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Gene Roddenberry once said that heroes don’t hide, so The United Federation of Planets in Star Trek didn’t develop cloaking technologies of their own. While this is a laudable position for the good guys in science fiction, it ignores the non-military applications of potential cloaking devices. Fortunately, scientists have extended the ideas of camouflage and stealth technologies into the realm of true cloaks. They may be somewhat limited at the present time, but yes, cloaking devices do exist. Engineered metamaterials have the ability to bend light around an object, so that what is behind the target is seen by the observer, just as if the object wasn’t there at all. These gradient index cloaks hide a defined space, but other metamaterial cloaks, called mantle cloaks, can be attached to an individual object to be cloaked. These cloaks destroy any light that bounces off the target object, again yielding it invisible over a range of EM frequencies. But science doesn’t stop there, new techniques can slow light down or stop it completely in order to cloaks events in time or change the apparent position of a moving object in space.

I’ve served on a half a dozen ships, and none of them’ve had cloaking devices except the Defiant. Now that we’re not using it, I feel naked. —Miles O’Brien DS9: Broken Link

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Lasbury, M.E. (2017). Cloaking Devices: Vanishing Into Thin Space. In: The Realization of Star Trek Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40914-6_2

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Screen Rant

Why do star trek: discovery's klingons have cloaking technology.

Klingons should not have cloaking technology on Star Trek: Discovery, according to existing canon, but it looks like T'Kuvma is an exception.

Spoilers ahead for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery

The two-part premiere of Star Trek: Discovery was a thrilling ride with vibrant, fascinating characters, and a new visual interpretation of Gene Roddenberry's classic creation. It's inevitable, however, that any attempt to breathe fresh life into a venerable franchise is going to come with some growing pains, and few things draw the ire of those resistant to change like new creators coming in and violating established continuity.

One canonical change that fans have been dwelling on is how the Klingons on Star Trek: Discovery somehow have access to cloaking technology. The antagonist, T'Kuvma, was able to render his flagship invisible to his enemies at a pivotal moment in the story. Yet Star Trek 's long, complicated history says that Klingons shouldn't have cloaking devices on-hand for another decade or so.

Since last night's episode, "Context is for Kings," was quite light on Klingons, Star Trek: Discovery has not yet revealed how T'Kuvma was able to get his hands on cloaking tech. All we know is that his ship, which hasn't been named on the show but was informally known among the production crew as "the Sarcophagus Ship," is now the first known Klingon ship capable of cloaking. This flies in the face of information established by Star Trek: The Original Series .

Did T'Kuvma develop his own cloaking device, separate from the Klingon Empire's later efforts? Did he acquire the technology from another alien race, like the Romulans? That wouldn't be too hard to imagine, given the two empires' sharing of this technology a few years down the road.

There's no guarantee that Discovery will ever explain where T'Kuvma's cloaking device came from, especially if such a revelation doesn't serve the story. The matter at hand is that Klingons had cloaking tech much earlier than we were led to believe.

How is this possible?

In the original series episode "Balance of Terror," Captain Kirk and crew experience first contact with Romulans after a war with them ended a century earlier. They didn't even know at the time that Romulans looked like Vulcans, so the discovery that they had cloaking technology was one of several shocks. At the time, this was believed to be the first human contact with a cloaking device of any kind.

Star Trek: Enterprise later retconned this with the help of time travel and that whole "Temporal Cold War" thing. In a nutshell, thanks to the manipulative efforts of the mysterious Future Guy, Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew encountered cloaking technology that was being used by the evil Suliban, but thanks to a little futuristic help on their side of things, they came up with a device able to counteract cloaking. It's suspected that all of this was made classified by Starfleet, due to how mucking around with time tends to cause history to unravel.

For their part, the writers behind Star Trek: Discovery have already hinted that they know about the discrepancy. The script -- and namely the characters on the show -- identified their device as a "Cloaking Screen," not a cloaking device.  See? So it's not the same! It's all cool now!

Except for a vocal contingent of Trekkies, it's not cool at all.

Here's the thing. Cloaking technology is not the only way in which Discovery plays fast and loose with Star Trek continuity. Another glaring change is the fact that Spock apparently had an adopted sister in Michael Burnham, whom he never once mentioned. For what it's worth, Discovery producers have promised that they have an answer for how Burnham's existence doesn't violate Spock's story, and that they'll reveal it eventually.

Then there's the design of the Klingons . From their costumes to their prosthetic makeup, they've evolved drastically since the days of Worf and Gowron. Taking a cue from J.J. Abrams' alternate timeline films, Discovery 's Klingons are hairless, with bone ridges going all the way over the tops of their heads and down in back. Discovery takes things a big step further by introducing more pronounced ridges over the nose and head, and widely varied skin tones among the Klingon race.

The show itself as much as told viewers that the Sarcophagus Ship is a special case. It's not part of a Klingon militia, it's not a war machine. It's the ancestral ship of T'Kuvma's family. This was hammered home by the fact that its exterior was covered in the bodies and coffins of hundreds of dead Klingons. And if anything, the interior design of the Sarcophagus Ship has more in common with a church than a spacefaring vessel.

Discovery has also established that at this point in history, the Klingon Empire is a fragmented mess, its power divided among the 24 most powerful Klingon houses. So if every house has its own ship or ships that it built itself, that makes the Sarcophagus Ship very much one-of-a-kind. As a certain Jedi would say (sorry, wrong franchise), from a certain point of view , it could be argued that the cloak used by T'Kuvma wasn't owned or used by the Klingon Empire. Therefore, they have a little wiggle room to play with.

Ultimately, what has to be remembered is that if it is a contradiction of canon... So what? Yeah, that's a sacrilegious statement for some, but Star Trek is more than 50 years old now, and if you examine any media property that old closely enough, you're going to find discrepancies everywhere.

There are very few franchises that have lived as long as Star Trek . James Bond and Doctor Who come to mind. Bond has already been rebooted once. Doctor Who practically makes a habit of rewriting its own history on a seasonal basis. (It's literally about constant time travel . Do you really expect it to always add up?)

Star Trek 's world is a huge, sprawling galaxy filled with countless cultures constantly going through the kinds of struggles and upheavals that have occurred throughout (real) history. Add in the numerous time periods Star Trek 's stories are been set in, and you've got an incredibly complex canvas for modern storytellers to try to make accessible to new viewers .

What matters most is the emotional drama and interpersonal relationships between the characters. And Star Trek: Discovery has already shown how firm a grasp it has on that.

Next:  Star Trek Discovery: The Vulcan Katra Explained

Star Trek canon just retconned a crucial piece of starship technology

How do you cloak a starship? One of Star Trek: Prodigy’s advisers breaks down that Chimerium cloaking device.

Stealth tech in Star Trek has always been unreliable for the people in the starships and reliably awesome for the audience. First introduced in the Romulan-centric ‘60s episode “Balance of Terror,” starships with cloaking devices are pretty much invisible, and therefore a giant pain-in-the-neck for the ethical members of the Federation, who mostly lack cloaking tech.

But now, there’s a new type of cloaking technology in the Star Trek universe, and it's powered by a mysterious variety of crystals called “Chimerium.” The funny thing is, though, Chimerium isn’t new at all. It originates in Star Trek novels and has recently made its way into the Trek canon.

To figure it all out, we caught up with one of the advisers for Star Trek: Prodigy — Trek novelist David Mack — who filled us in on the origin of Chimerium and how it fits in with what you think you knew about cloaking technology. Spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Prodigy , Episode 7, “First Con-tact.”

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The USS Protostar , surrounded by Chimerium.

What is Chimerium?

In the latest episode of Prodigy , “First Con-tact,” Dal and the crew of the Protostar encounter Dal’s adoptive mother, a Ferengi thief who is actually trying to rip off Dal, too. But the game-changing thing here is something that has been brewing in Prodigy for a while, the idea that certain kinds of cloaking devices can be powered by Chimerium crystals.

The crystals that Dal and everybody were being forced to mine by the Diviner in the very first episode are, in fact, Chimerium crystals, used primarily by the Diviner to cloak his entire penal colony. In terms of the onscreen Trek canon, Chimerium has been newly introduced by Prodigy , but it’s not a new concept.

The Star Trek novella where Chimerium was first created.

The literary origin of Chimerium

Before Prodigy , Chimerium debuted in a series of books called Star Trek: S.C.E , which stands for Starfleet Corps of Engineers. In the novella Invincible — written by David Mack and Keith R. A. DeCandido — the substance of Chimerium first appeared because as Mack puts it, “I needed an objective for the laborers.”

His idea was that Chimerium is “a substance that is useful for blocking and/or reflecting sensors.” The name as you might have guessed comes from “chimera,” something that has been made of other elements. In Mack’s conception of Chimerium, the crystal is a mineral compound of various elements.

Does the mining operation in Prodigy episode 1 make a little more sense now?

How Chimerium became canon for Prodigy

The incorporation of this non-canon crystal into the actual visual canon of Trek was pretty organic. Mack explains it like this:

“Early in the development of Star Trek: Prodigy , when the Hageman brothers were still developing its detailed final proposal for Alex Kurtzman, they hired me as an expert Star Trek consultant. The Hagemans described to me the setting and purpose of the mining operation on the planetoid Tars Lamora. They wanted the Protostar to be hidden inside the planetoid, and for their bad guy, the Diviner, to have been searching there for the ship over a period of many years, possibly even decades.

Because sensors in the Star Trek universe should easily have been able to find a starship no matter how deeply it was buried inside the planetoid, I suggested to the Hagemans that it might be a good idea if the planetoid were rich with a compound that blocks sensors. That would explain why the Diviner was forced to resort to such brute-force search methods, while also giving him a valuable resource he could trade to finance his ongoing search. The Hagemans thought that sounded like a good idea and asked me to recommend such a compound. I immediately suggested Chimerium, a substance that seemed custom-made for their story needs, and they agreed that it felt like a good fit.”

The Diviner activates his Chimerium cloak in the second episode of Prodigy , “Starstruck.”

How is Chimerium different from “regular” cloaking?

In Prodigy’s newest episode, “First Con-tact,” Dal and the crew not only lose the chance to get a Chimerium cloaking device but also lose their entire supply of Chimerium too. Naturally, the young crew of the Protostar was pretty pumped about the possibility of having a cloaking device jacked into their ship, mostly because it would help keep them safe. But if you were wondering if Chimerium has always been required to power cloaking devices in Star Trek canon, the answer is no . The specific type of “Chimerium cloak” is new to Star Trek: Prodigy , and we actually saw the Diviner use it in the second episode of the series.

Other than the fact that it uses these specific crystals, how is this kind of cloaking device different from the ones we’ve seen in Trek before? Mack says the biggest difference is that Chimerium “is like a natural stealth,” because it doesn’t literally make the ship “invisible.”

“The types of cloaking devices we usually see used by Klingons and Romulans use an artificially generated energy field to bend both visible light and sensor beams, rendering their spacecraft literally invisible and also hiding them from sensors,” Mack explains. “Chimerium is a mineral compound that blocks, bends, or reflects sensor beams.”

So, this means that if someone were to look out the window, a ship using a Chimerium cloak would probably be visible to the naked eye. But if you were trying to look for that ship with sensors or other kinds of scanning equipment, you wouldn’t find anything. What Prodigy has done is canonized tech from Star Trek novels, which allows starships to hide in plain sight.

Considering how cool this kind of technology is within the framework of the endlessly enthralling Star Trek starship canon , it would be shocking if this tech was limited only to Prodigy . We should probably be on the lookout for Chimerium in other upcoming Trek shows, assuming, of course, we even know how to find it.

Star Trek: Prodigy streams on Paramount+

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Science Fiction or Fact: Invisibility Cloaks Will One Day Exist

In this weekly series, Life's Little Mysteries scores the plausibility of popular science fiction concepts.

In the "Star Trek" universe, cloaking devices on Romulan and Klingon spaceships create all sorts of tactical nightmares for their human foes. Hiding in plain sight is certainly a handy trick for a person, too, as fans of "The Invisible Man" and the "Harry Potter" series know well.

Science has given us glimpses, as it were, of how these anti-detection technologies might be possible. But full-fledged invisibility cloaks like those of science fiction and fantasy remain quite a ways off.

"I won't call it impossible, but it's implausible what you see in 'Harry Potter ,'" David Smith, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, said. "That's perfect movie invisibility — too perfect."

Nevertheless, research into rendering objects invisible has made leaps and bounds just in the last several years. Partial cloaks that work like sophisticated camouflage — much like the shimmering distortion of the Predator alien in the 1987 movie of the same name — might be more realistically achievable, Smith said.

The rise of cloaking tech

Smith leads the group at Duke that demonstrated the deflection of microwaves around a two-dimensional cylinder back in 2006, making it appear almost as though the cylinder were not actually there. The effect is similar to water flowing around a rock and resuming its course, as if the former obstacle was not there at all.

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This breakthrough result and many of the others since made use of so-called metamaterials. These custom-crafted metals, plastics or other materials have structures — and therefore properties — unlike those found in nature. The metamaterials' design allows them to manipulate electromagnetic waves in prescribed ways.

"Artificial materials, where you have so much more flexibility, have allowed this theoretical idea [of cloaking] to really move forward," Smith said.

Traditional attempts at cloaking have focused on reducing electromagnetic emissions and light reflection from an object. The B-2 stealth bomber , for instance, has engines in its wings to cut down on heat exhaust, plus the aircraft is coated with radio wave-absorbing paint to thwart radar. But objects still cast shadows this way, which can spoil an attempt at truly turning ghost.

Bending light to our will

Recent work with metamaterials has extended their deceptive capabilities to wavelengths in the optical range. One such approach devised a "carpet cloak" that could hide a tiny lump of material under a special metamaterial layer. Another approach relied on natural, chunky calcite crystals to manipulate visible light with a certain vibration direction, or polarization.

In short, progress continues to be made. The metamaterial and calcite techniques could see real-world applications soon, with the former preventing antennas from interfering with each other, for example.

Yet what's been accomplished thus far has been limited in terms of wavelength range and types of light that have been duped into doing our bidding.

In microwave and visible bands, state-of-the-art cloaking device-like technologies have been able to address only "a tiny portion, at best, of any one of those bands, let alone the whole thing," Smith said. [ Top 10 Inventions that Changed the World ]

To cloak a dynamic object moving through free space, like the dreadlocked Predator creature romping through the jungle, metamaterials have a long way to go. "Give us one hundred years with other technologies that come in, and we might have something a lot closer than you'd think," Smith said.

In the meantime, would-be invisible men might pin their hopes on an entirely different technological method to cloaking, one that fools the eye by emitting light, rather than detouring it around a hidden object.

The concept involves covering the object or person in micro-cameras and tiny screens, all hooked up to fancy software and an energy source.

"The micro-cameras take images of what is behind the person. Then the screens project that image in front so it seems like you're looking through the person," explained Sidney Perkowitz, a physicist at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. "You would need perhaps hundreds of thousands of devices, but if they were linked wirelessly and had fast enough computing, you could have the illusion be fast enough for a real-time effect."

The idea is similar to how cuttlefish change the complexion of their skin with astonishing speed and accuracy to mimic the hues and patterns of coral and rock they nestle against. Crude versions of this sort of "active" or "adaptive" camouflage are in the works by the U.S. military and other armed forces.

What of cloaking devices for future spaceships? "If you cloak something the size of a human, I don’t think it will be too much [more difficult] to cloak a battleship," Smith said.

A problem that will limit all cloaking technologies, however, is the speed of light. With a flawless cloak, diverted light waves arrive at a potential observer without any delay. But re-routing light waves from and then back to a normal, straight-line path means the light has to cover more distance, which of course takes more time, Smith said.

The delay means some diverted light arrives late; the delay is slight, but probably still enough to mar the cloaking effect." To some extent, these things are always going to be detectable," Smith said.

"Star Trek" writers got around this quandary pseudo-scientifically by proposing that a cloaking device warps space itself, thus delivering diverted light to an observer right on time. Not an easy trick to pull off, though, Smith said. "It would take a ridiculous amount of energy to make something like that feasible."

Still, even in the relative near-term, cloaking tech should make the move from the lab into the field. "I think invisibility cloaks have largely moved from a physics problem that has been solved," said Perkowitz, "to an engineering problem that may be solved."

Plausibility score: A total disappearance-style cloaking device as depicted in sci-fi and fantasy is out of bounds. But extremely sophisticated camouflage that lets you melt right into the background looks like a go. On balance, then, we give the cloaking concept three out of four Rocketboys.

This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries , a sister site to LiveScience.

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cloaking device

Duke University prototype cloaking device. Duke researchers built a simplified version of their cloaking device out of copper rings and wires patterned onto fiberglass sheets and demonstrated that it successfully diverted microwaves.

Federation interphase cloaking device.

Japanese visual stealth jacket.

Microwave cloak.

A cloaking device is a form of stealth technology familiar in science fiction, most notably in the Star Trek universe, but that is now becoming possible, to a limited extent, in the real world (see below). Humans have long dreamed of having the power of invisibility. In Greek mythology, Perseus possessed a cap that let him wink out of view. In more recent times, H. G. Wells penned "The Invisible Man" about a scientist who learned to change the refractive index of his own body.

Star Trek cloaking technology

In the Star Trek universe, a cloaking device renders a starship or other facility so equipped, invisible to the eye and to most sensor systems. Cloaking is said to require so much power that a vessel can't use weapons (or, in early episodes, also warp drive ) unless it first de-cloaks. This proviso provides ample opportunity for interesting plot developments. However, the stricture is violated in several Star Trek episodes. For example, in the original series episode "Face of the Enemy" a Romulan warbird fires while cloaked. By the 24th century, as depicted in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), a method has been found to detect cloaked ships: by searching for neutrinos that leak from the cloak. Apparently, even the best cloaking system can't prevent all of these elusive particles from escaping from sources such as the ship's warp core. Somewhat implausibly, only the Romulans and Klingons used cloaking in the original series.

The absence of the technology aboard Federation ships was explained in TNG by way of the Treaty of Algeron, in which the Federation relinquished the right to develop or use cloaking devices. However, an illegal Federation cloaking device turns up aboard the USS Pegasus in the TNG episode "Pegasus". The Pegasus device is particularly advanced in that it allows passage through solid matter – so-called "interphase cloaking" (see photo at upper right).

In season three of Deep Space 9, the Federation starship Defiant is introduced complete with a cloaking device on loan from the Romulan Empire – an arrangement not in violation of the Treaty of Algeron. The Romulans loaned the Federation a cloaking device specifically so that it could conduct covert surveillance of the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant.

In the Star Trek universe, the cloaking device supposedly generates a "spatial distortion" which causes light and sensor rays to travel around the ship, so that nothing is reflected from its surface. Such an in intense distortion – equivalent to an enormous mass concentration, such as that in the vicinity of a black hole or neutron star – would certainly crush the ship and crew unless additional measures were taken to counteract the effect inside the distortion.

In the real world, there is great interest in the development of optical stealth technology which is effectively a form of cloaking. Indeed, this technology has already begun to break into the public sector, notably in Japan.

Anomalous localized resonance

In 2006, mathematicians Nicolae Nicorovici and Graeme Milton proposed a kind of cloaking that would exploit a resonance with light waves (G. W. Milton and N. A. Nicorovici, "On the cloaking effects associated with anomalous localized resonance," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London , to appear, (2006). Called anomalous localized resonance, it would involve placing certain objects close to a material called a superlens so that they would appear to vanish. The effect is analogous to a tuning fork being placed next to a wine glass causing the wine glass to ring with the same frequency.

Nicorovici and Milton explain in their paper how an illuminated speck of dust would scatter light at frequencies that induce a strong, finely tuned resonance in a cloaking material placed very close by. The resonance would effectively cancel out the light reflecting from the speck of dust, rendering the dust particle invisible.

One way to construct a cloaking device is to use a superlens, made of recently discovered materials that force light to behave in unusual ways. If the speck of dust is close enough it induces a very aggressive response in the cloaking material which essentially acts back on the speck of dust and forces it to stop shining. Even though light is hitting the speck of dust, scattering of the light is prevented by the cloak which is in close proximity. The authors of the paper argue that the cloak needn't just work with a speck of dust, but could also apply to larger objects. However, the authors have so far only done the maths to verify that the concept could work.

Microwave cloak

Also in 2006, a team of British and American scientists gave the first practical demonstration of a cloaking device at Duke University, North Carolina. The device mostly hid a small copper cylinder from microwaves . It works by deflecting the microwaves around the object and restoring them on the other side, as if they had passed through empty space.

The microwave cloak consists of 10 fiberglass rings covered with copper elements (see illustrations at right and top). This is classed as a metamaterial – an artificial composite that can be engineered to produce a desired change in the direction of electromagnetic waves. The precise variations in the shape of copper elements patterned on to the ring surfaces determines their properties.

In the experiment, the scientists first measured microwaves traveling across a plane of view with no obstacles. Then they placed a copper cylinder in the same plane and measured the disturbance, or scattering, in the microwaves. Finally, the researchers placed the invisibility cloak over the copper cylinder. Although the cloak did not completely iron out the disturbance, it greatly reduced the microwaves being blocked or deflected.

In principle, the same mechanism could be used to cloak objects from visible light. But this would pose a challenge, as nano-scale engineering would be needed to make the cloak.

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Real-life invisibility cloaks are already here. But how do they work?

Invisibility cloaks have already transcended fiction. The future is now.

Have you ever dreamed of the ability to roam the world without being seen? While the idea of invisibility has long fascinated human imagination, it seemed confined to the realms of science fiction. However, recent advancements in optical technology have brought us closer to our very own real-life invisibility cloaks.

Although not nearly as impressive or easy to use as the cloaks shown in Star Trek or Harry Potter , these yet early devices are redefining the meaning of the word stealth.

How does an invisibility cloak work?

“Visibility depends on the action of the visible bodies on light. Either a body absorbs light, or it reflects or refracts it, or does all these things. If it neither reflects nor refracts nor absorbs light, it cannot of itself be visible.” – H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man  

At its core, invisibility technology relies on manipulating light waves, which are responsible for our visual perception. Researchers have developed innovative approaches that bend and redirect light, effectively concealing objects from view.

However, achieving a full-blown invisibility cloak across the entire visual spectrum is a huge challenge. Previously, scientists have made fighter jets invisible to radar and made thermal invisibility jackets that hide soldiers from enemy thermal cameras. But to conceal something from the naked eye as if it never was there requires some serious engineering.

Normally, when light interacts with an object, it is either absorbed or reflected, making the object visible. True transparency would require light to pass through an object undisturbed, as if it were not there. To achieve this, a cloaking device would need to redirect light from all directions around the object, so that it appears invisible from any angle.

Metamaterials, engineered materials with unique properties not found in nature, play a pivotal role in creating invisibility cloaks. By designing these materials with carefully arranged nanostructures, scientists can control the behavior of light waves. This field, known as transformation optics, allows for the manipulation of light around an object, making it appear invisible.

Metalenses, on the other hand, are thin lenses that can focus light of various wavelengths onto the same point, overcoming the limitations of traditional lenses.

Several cloaking mechanisms have been proposed and developed to achieve invisibility. One approach involves bending light around an object, creating a “cloak” that renders it optically transparent. Another method utilizes the redirection of light, making an object appear as if it were not there. These techniques require precise control over the speed, direction, and intensity of light waves to achieve the desired effect.

Examples of invisibility cloaks

While true invisibility cloaks are still in the realm of scientific research and development, there have been notable advancements and demonstrations in the field.

Quantum Stealth

One of the most interesting invisibility cloak prototypes comes from Hyperstealth Biotechnology, a Canadian manufacturer of military-grade camouflage uniforms. In 2019, the company unveiled “Quantum Stealth”, a paper-thin material that bends light around a target of any size from soldiers to tanks and ships. Moreover, the cloaking not only works for visible light but also against infrared and shortwave infrared light, making Quantum Stealth a broadband invisibility cloak.

This unparalleled versatility is made possible by employing lenticular lenses, typically seen in 3D bookmarks or collectible cards. In the case of Quantum Stealth, these lenses remain clear and unprinted. By layering multiple lenticular sheets with different lens distributions, the material can refract light at numerous angles, creating “dead spots” that prevent light from passing through and effectively concealing the subject while keeping the background unaffected.

The Rochester cloak

Other notable advancements include the Rochester Cloak , which uses a system of lenses to disappear small objects. Developed in 2014 at the University of Rochester, this particular cloaking device uses four standard lenses in a unique configuration. The end result is three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking, which works across the visible spectrum.

This means that the device can hide an object from view regardless of the viewer’s position relative to it. The team accomplished this feat by carefully selecting the lens type, power, and distance between the lenses.

During one experiment, the scientists placed the cloaked object in front of a grid background. As the researchers changed their viewing angle, the grid shifted as if the cloaking device did not exist. The grid lines behind the cloaked object remained continuous and matched the background in terms of magnification and spacing. And unlike previous designs, which resulted in visible shifts in the background, this new device ensures that the background remains undisturbed, thereby enhancing its effectiveness.

While the current device showcases significant advancements, there are still areas for improvement. First of all, you can’t turn this setup into an invisibility suit because the optics are complicated and inflexible. The researchers acknowledge that the cloaked region currently resembles a doughnut shape due to the way light is bent and sent through the center of the device. However, they have developed more intricate designs to address this limitation. Furthermore, the cloak exhibits edge effects, although these can be mitigated by using larger lenses.

Copper rings cloak from Duke

Engineers at Duke University are responsible for the world’s first functional cloaking device, which they unveiled in 2006. However, the device suffered from an issue related to reflections, which reduced its overall efficiency. In 2012, the researchers devised an improved design that addresses this critical concern and takes us closer to harnessing the full potential of controlled light transmission.

One of the primary challenges faced in the development of the original cloak was the loss of waves due to reflections at the boundaries of the device. These reflections, akin to the ones seen on clear glass, disrupted the seamless cloaking effect. The upgraded cloak retains the row-by-row design of the original, but now incorporates additional copper strips to create a more intricate and high-performing metamaterial.

The device, measuring approximately two feet square, forms a diamond shape with an empty center. By carefully positioning each strip to meet its mirror image at each interface, the Duke researchers successfully mitigated the reflections that plagued earlier versions. However, this cloak only achieves invisibility in 2-D and at a certain angle.

An invisibility cloak for security cameras

A team of Chinese graduate students has managed to outsmart security cameras with a breakthrough invention. Meet InvisDefens e, an unassuming coat designed to render its wearer virtually invisible to AI-monitored cameras.

InvisDefense possesses the extraordinary ability to render the wearer indistinguishable to surveillance cameras while remaining visible to the naked eye. The secret lies in its meticulously crafted pattern, cleverly configured to evade detection by AI algorithms.

“Security cameras using AI technology are everywhere. They pervade our lives,” said Wei Hui, the computer science graduate student at Wuhan University who designed the coat’s core algorithm. “Our privacy is exposed under machine vision.” 

“We designed this product to counter malicious detection, to protect people’s privacy and safety in certain circumstances.”

During daylight hours, cameras primarily rely on motion and contour recognition to identify human bodies. By adorning the surface of InvisDefense with a specially designed camouflage pattern, the coat cunningly disrupts the machine vision’s recognition algorithm, leaving cameras incapable of discerning the wearer as a person.

As darkness descends, the challenge intensifies as cameras switch to infrared thermal imaging. To counter this, InvisDefense integrates irregularly shaped temperature-controlling modules on its inner surface, generating a unique thermal pattern that bewilders the infrared camera, further cloaking the wearer from prying eyes.

While not a visible spectrum invisibility suit, this design is so ingenious that it’s worthy of a mention on our list. And in addition to its transformative impact on personal privacy, InvisDefense holds promise in domains such as anti-drone warfare and human-machine engagement on the battlefield.

A breakthrough in 2018 involved the use of titanium-based nanofins in metalenses, allowing them to bend light by the necessary amount to achieve invisibility. While previous metamaterials could not cover visible light wavelengths, the combination of metalenses and metamaterials shows promise in extending invisibility to the visible-light spectrum.

This advancement in metalenses offers the potential to create visible-light cloaking devices, where light of different wavelengths can be manipulated to render objects invisible. While the technology is not yet fully developed, it represents a significant step towards achieving real-life invisibility cloaks in the near future.

The Invisibility Shield

The Invisibility Shield uses a precision-engineered lens array that cleverly manipulates light. By redirecting the majority of the light reflected from the subject away from the observer, the shield effectively camouflages the person behind it. This redirected light is then spread sideways across the face of the shield, creating the illusion of a background instead of the person who should be visible.

According to Invisibility Shield Co., their shields perform at their best when used against uniform backgrounds. Natural settings like foliage, grass, and the sky, as well as man-made features such as rendered walls, sand, rails, or painted lines, offer the perfect canvas for these remarkable shields. In these scenarios, the background light is expertly diffused, making the shield incredibly effective at concealing its wearer.

The future of invisibility cloaks

In the military domain, cloaking technology could revolutionize stealth operations, rendering military assets invisible to radar or surveillance systems. Additionally, in the field of optics, invisibility techniques can enhance the efficiency of telescopes, microscopes, and other imaging devices.

While we may not witness Harry Potter-like invisibility cloaks anytime soon, the strides made in this field are undeniably impressive. Ongoing research and collaboration between scientists, engineers, and material specialists hold the promise of further breakthroughs in the future. Invisibility technology might someday become an integral part of our lives, revolutionizing various industries and transforming the way we perceive the world.

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Why Does Starfleet Not Use Cloaking?

By: Author Brad Burnie

Posted on Published: October 22, 2020  - Last updated: August 26, 2022

Share the Universe!

Almost every race that Starfleet crews come across have cloaking technology. While Starfleet ships can implement this technology, they have refrained from doing so. Why does Starfleet refrain from using cloaking technology?

Starfleet signed a treaty with the Romulans at Algeron after the Earth-Romulan wars that had the provision that Starfleet would not use cloaking technology. Klingons have cloaking technology because they joined the Romulans’ side. Starfleet developed the ability to detect cloaked ships as a defense.

Starfleet might have caved in the treaty of Algeron, but let’s keep going to find out how they’ve adapted to win wars and conflicts.

History of Cloaking Technology

The “stealth technology” that the Suliban had on Star Trek: Enterprise suggests that cloaking technology existed long before Starfleet sent their first warp-capable ship into space. Some say, however, that the Suliban’s stealth technology was a precursor to cloaking technology because it doesn’t exactly use light bending. In that same series, the Suliban’s technology is proven to be cloaking technology.

Romulans had cloaking technology in the 22nd century. Supposedly the Klingons gave the technology to the Romulans, as they had an uneasy alliance. However, the Romulans’ devices needed extensive engineering to work properly, so the Klingons alliance was terminated.

Humans never had a chance to use this technology, as the treaty was signed before Starfleet engineers could create anything that resembled a cloaking device. The Vulcans also withheld information from humans because they thought humans were too primitive to handle space travel rigors.

What Is Cloaking Technology?

A cloaking device allows a ship to become invisible to enemies, which has the added advantage of spying on another culture before attacking. It uses a selective bending of light and other forms of energy that makes the ship invisible to most sensors. In order to work, the device needed to be connected to a ship’s deflector shield grid. 

When Did Humans First Encounter Cloaking Technology?

Two fishermen on a whaling ship off the coast of Alaska in 1987 were hunting two whales when their spear hit the side of something. They didn’t know what it was at first, but suddenly a large flying ship appeared out of nowhere. Admiral Kirk and crew were going home in a Klingon Bird of Prey after getting Spock and discovered that they needed to go back in time to save humanity.

Humans’ first encounter with cloaking technology was when Kirk and crew saved Earth from itself by bringing two humpback whales with them to repopulate the species and have them talk to the alien probe. 

The next encounter with this technology was when Suliban agents broke into the Enterprise’s sickbay to kidnap Klaang before he could go back to Kronos with vital information. Since that encounter, Starfleet ran into this technology multiple times. 

Races Who Can Use Cloaking Technology

Who can use cloaking technology without it being seen as an act of war? It appears that almost any other race or civilization can use cloaking technology. But because of the Algeron treaty , the Federation was never to put cloaking devices on their ships. (Of course, certain Starfleet ships did use the technology without being detected.) The races who could use the device were:

• Cardassians
• The Sphere Builders
• The Duck Blind Mission on the Ba’Ku homeworld 
• and many more.

The Treaty of Algeron Stopped Starfleet From Using Cloaking Technology

The Algeron Treaty stated that the Federation could not use or complete further research into cloaking technology. In return, the Romulans would stay on their side of the Neutral Zone and not commit espionage acts in the future.

Captain Pressman , who tried to circumvent this treaty by using a phasing cloaking device, declared that the treaty was the biggest mistake the Federation made, as it cut off any possibilities for real defense. He was arrested in 2370 for his role in the illegal cloaking device activity.

The Earth-Romulan War

The treaty was signed 160 years after the conclusion of the Earth-Romulan war . The war began in 2156 due to the tension the Romulans felt due to how Earth was creating peace among the enemies of the Romulans–Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellerites. As a result of space exploration by the Enterprise with Captain Archer, the diplomatic relations between these races improved greatly. 

But the Romulans didn’t like this new peace and created a campaign to disrupt it by sending automated drones to attack Andoria and Tellar. Unfortunately for the Romulans, it had the opposite effect. The attacks resulted in the new factions working together to return the drones and created peace between the worlds.

These neighbors created a Coalition of Planets and fought together when the Romulans waged open war in 2156. The war lasted until 2160 when the Coalition brought a decisive blow against the Romulan empire. Once the war was decided, a treaty was signed between the Romulans and the Coalition by subspace radio.

The treaty established the Neutral Zone, which neither side could cross without being interpreted as an act of war. The neutral zone did its job so well that neither side saw each other for over 100 years. 

Tomed Incident and the Algeron Treaty

In 2311, a confrontation between the Romulan Empire and the Federation resulted in the loss of thousands of lives. Named the Tomed Incident, it was a staged terrorist attack against a Federation starbase. A Romulan warship crashed into the base at high warp, and the quantum singularity wiped out over thirteen Starfleet outposts.

However, while thousands of lives appeared lost, that was a ruse by Starfleet to make it seem they were dead. The outposts were empty and emitted false life signs. The names of the people that died had already died before this incident and were covered up until this time. The Klingons sided with the Federation on this incident, suggesting that they already had an alliance with the Federation by this time.

The entire act of terror was orchestrated by Starfleet to diffuse the rising tensions between them and the Romulan Empire and create a treaty that would ensure peace for another century. The Romulans were required to remove themselves from the interstellar government, while the Federation could not have or research cloaking technology.

Starfleet Developed the Ability to Detect Cloaked Ships

In the aftermath of the treaty being signed, Starfleet still completed research and used cloaking devices in a limited fashion. While most did not get caught, Erik Pressman was arrested in 2370 for the research and application of the phasing cloaking device used on the Pegasus in 2358. 

However, during the period before the treaty was signed, Starfleet crews developed the ability to detect cloaking devices. A ripple in space, gaseous anomalies, and other methods were used to detect a cloaked ship nearby. After the treaty, these methods were even more important, as it provided a defensive strategy against those who would use cloaking to destroy the Federation. 

The Algeron treaty was considered a mistake by many in the Federation because it restricted their defensive abilities. But the treaty had accomplished one thing for the Federation—it took the Romulans out of circulation from the interstellar government. Peace was possible because factions that wanted war were out of the way.

Eventually, the Romulans gave Starfleet permission to use cloaking devices with limited supervision against the Dominion . (Only the Defiant could use a cloaking device.) The Dominion came from the Gamma Quadrant to take over the Federation, starting with Deep Space 9. Commander Sisko also used the technology several times during his time at the starbase.

• Memory Alpha: Treaty of Algeron
• Memory Alpha: Dominion
• Memory Alpha: Erik Pressman
• Memory Alpha: Tomed Incident
• Memory Alpha: Earth-Romulan War
• Memory Beta: Cloaking Device
• Memory Alpha: Cloaking Device
• Universe Guide: Why Does Starfleet Space Ships Not Have Cloaking?

Brad Burnie is the founder of Starships.com. He loves all video game genres. In his spare time, he loves reading, watching movies, and gaming