In 2311, Starfleet tied its own hands when it signed the Treaty of Algeron with the Romulan
Star Empire. This led to a ban on Federation worlds developing cloaking technology in order
to uphold a peace with Romulus, and prevent another Romulan War after the incendiary Tomed
Incident. But before this, Cloaking technology was known to Starfleet and had been the subject
of much study. Hi, Ric here with a quick video looking into the history of the Cloaking device
within Starfleet, there will be spoilers for Star Trek Discovery season 3 and other series
so be warned. As far back as 2151, the NX-01 Enterprise,
had encountered the Suliban Cabal, a sect of Suliban who had been provided with technology
from the future, specifically cloaking devices. These were hampered by the tech of the time,
and could be countered with a Quantum Beacon that was provided by a future Federation faction,
seeking to balance the discrepancy. Not long after, barely a year into its exploration
of deep space, the NX-01 ran afoul of a Romulan cloaked minefield followed by several T’Varo
warbirds. At this time, cloaking tech was known as a cloak screen and still in its infancy,
although the Romulans were ahead of the curve when it came to its application. During the
Earth Romulan War of 2155-2161, the Star Empire seldom deployed their cloaking devices on
missions, probably because Starfleet has still retained its knowledge of the Quantum Beacon,
nice job on the temporal Prime Directive there, guys. Instead, the Romulans often resorted
to simpler methods of hiding, such as lowering power emissions and coasting into enemy space,
or hiding in sensor interference. Because few Romulan vessels were captured,
and those that were seemed to not even have cloaking devices installed, Starfleet research
and development had little to go on when it came to creating their own. This problem persisted
into the 23rd century, when Starfleet came into conflict with the Klingons. As of 2254,
the Klingon Empire had obtained cloaking devices from somewhere, apocrypha states it was discovered
aboard the ancient Sarcophagus vessel and restored, but who knows where ancient Klingons
got it. Maybe they pillaged it? Point is, for the second time, Starfleet was
facing a foe that had a superior method of stealth to their ships. Starfleet had been
experimenting with its own cloaking theories, but had hit a road block cause by a lack of
POWAH. Section 31 in the meantime, although hoarding much experimental gear and things
that would eventually find their way into regular circulation, surprisingly was no better
off on this front. They operated on several ships, the NCIA-93s that were designed from
the ground up to evade sensor scans when in a low power “dark mode”, but this was
effectively just a superior form power dampening that any vessel can do.
I assume Starfleet eventually found a way to counter early cloaks, as by 2266, the Romulans
were back at it again with a new Cloaking Device, that the Enterprise-1701 had a lot
of trouble with. This device however, was still not immune to Starfleet sensors, and
the Enterprise was able to vaguely shadow the Bird of Prey and eventually destroy it.
In 2268, Starfleet had enough of being behind on this front, dispatched Kirk and crew to
procure a device, a new model that seemed to have rectified even the minor vulnerability
from two years prior. This device was captured and returned to Starfleet for study. Over
the next couple of years, the Klingon Empire would go on to create more cloaking devices
and some suspect they are also of Romulan origin.
Eventually, Starfleet’s first hand research into the cloak, led to a number of vulnerabilities
to be uncovered, methods for tracking a cloaked ship, but as always with an arms race, as
an exploit is found, it’s addressed and a newer cloak is rolled out.
Eventually however, the Treaty of Algeron was signed, which halted all development on
the device. Starfleet would however continue to develop its own varieties of Stealth technology
based on forms of invisibility that weren’t affiliated with the Romulan Cloaking system.
However, the most notable violation of the treaty was uncovered in 2370 by Captain Picard
and Commander Riker. The USS Pegasus, under the command of then-Captain Pressman, had
developed its own experimental phase cloak twelve years earlier. The project was cancelled
when the ship was wrecked, but it was still in direct opposition to the tenuous peace
between the UFP and the Star Empire. However, the Star Empire had little time to
dwell on this, as the Dominion War erupted and they allocated a Romulan operated cloaking
device to the USS Defiant, in favour for all the intel Starfleet hand on the Dominion.
This device was only to be operated by a Romulan officer who went on to become one of the most
prominent members.. of the- wait, T’Rul vanished inexplicably? Huh.
The Bajoran Wormhole was also mined with cloaked self-replicating mines, presumably the Federation
had mutual permission to do that too. What Starfleet probably didn’t have permission
for, was the cloaking device aboard the secret Holodeck Ship of 2375. Although their observation
posts were hidden with holographic overlays, the holoship downright had a cloaking device.
So clearly, by this time, Starfleet had learned how to make their own cloaking tech, but refrained
from using it on their ships, to maintain the spirit of the Treaty. However, in 2387,
the Romulan Supernova occurred, and wiped out Romulus, Reamus and several other Star
Empire worlds. What happens after then is still being written,
but it is known that eventually, the unification of Romulus and Vulcan resulted in the founding
of Ni’Var, the renaming of Vulcan to the dual home of Vulcans and Romulans. As Vulcan
was a UFP member world, this would have meant that the Romulans, no longer under the banner
of the Star Empire, would also have allied with the Federation. As such, a continued
ban of cloaking tech would have been unnecessary so the Treaty of Algeron was annulled. Again,
it’s not established when, exactly this joining happened, but in beta canon, Romulus
joined Starfleet around the 26th century. What is certain is that Federation starships
had cloaking devices on them by the 32nd century. Starfleet has so often been on the back foot
when it comes to cloaking tech, with the most pioneering research into them being on how
to overcome them, nullify the advantage rather than catch up. If you look at it that way,
I can see why the Federation didn’t consider the Treaty of Algeron a bad deal. Every cloak
they had encountered so far was eventually countered and their own stealth tech was nothing
to sniff at either. However, the instances where a cloaked enemy got ahead of them, often
did result in major incidents, so maybe they would have benefitted from first-hand experience.
Thanks for watching this summary of the Federation’s history with cloaking devices. What do you
think of the treaty? A fair deal for 88 years of practical peace with the Star Empire? I’ve
been Ric. Thanks again and I’ll see you next time. Or not, because cloaking. Goodbye!