I dunno, reading about the Envoy and Sanctuary in Night's Space Exploration Platforms- Weapons of Diplomacy sounds pretty good to me?
I also found some nice just cheesy enough names for two of the big Envoy Diplo-lounges and their sweeping views.
The panoramic 'suspended bubble' lounge underneath the saucer is Four Below, and the more conventional dorsal lounge, aft of the bridge is Seven Above. Four Below can also be partially or completely filled with water or similar liquid atmospheres.
There's a lounge at the rear, above the shuttle bay, probably used for shuttle-arriving delegates you don't want to show the length of the ship.
The fourth might be in the neck- I thought perhaps it goes across the width, with a view over the deflector? And you can wave at the Vermillions.
This essay is part of a continuing education series produced under the auspices of the University of Paris.
Cloaking devices are a romanticized and yet misunderstood technology. Some of my acquaintances fortunate enough to be involved in multiple First Contact follow-ups tell me there is always a point wherein they mention the widespread use of cloaking devices by the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire and the conversation simply grinds to a halt while our new friends grapple with the notion of "invisible starships".
But what exactly are we talking about when we discuss cloaking devices and cloaking technology? First, let us say what they are not. "Cloaking technology" is not a generic term for any stealth technology used with starships. It has a specific meaning.
I. Nature of the Cloaking Effect
The common term "cloaking technology" refers to production of a quantum phase bubble. Contact with the exterior of this bubble shifts all forms of electromagnetic radiation (and many subspace-related radiations and low energy particles) into another universe slightly out of phase with our own. The EM radiation passes through the space of the bubble and then reappears out the other other side completely unchanged. In effect, it's as if whatever was inside the bubble does not exist as far as EM radiation is concerned.
This total transparency is a key point. Many assume that light is merely bent around a cloaking field, but such measures invariably create a distortion effect as light takes longer to move around the field then it would to move through it. Light bending is not in the modern era considered to be true cloaking technology.
The effect also works in the opposite direction. EM radiation moving outward from a ship is phase-shifted when it hits the interior surface of the bubble and then continues to move outwards still phase shifted. This is important, as if cloaked ships could not radiate then heat build-up would quickly make life within extremely uncomfortable. Eventually the phasing effect fades even without a second exposure to the quantum phase bubble, and the EM radiation returns to our universe. This takes sufficient time and occurs on a varied enough schedule that the radiation becomes extremely attenuated and of little use in tracking the cloaked ship.
Objects with any significant mass or high energy particles such as nadions are unaffected by the quantum phase bubble, meaning that a cloaking field provides little defense if your opponent is using anything more sophisticated than a laser. (Or indeed less sophisticated – a simple fission explosive device would pass right through.) Also some exotic particles or radiation types interact with the bubble rather than being phase shifted, but more on this when we discuss methods of detecting cloaks.
Speaking of weapons, to the frustration of both Empires that make heavy use of cloaking devices it is impossible to accurately fire phasers, disruptors, or any similar technology while cloaked. As previously described the nadions themselves pass easily through the quantum phase bubble on the way in, but outwards has a very different geometry that virtually randomizes the shot. Even solid projectiles such as photon torpedoes run the risk of being thrown off-course or worse detonating prematurely.
Finally, for those wondering how a ship within can sense its surroundings while inside a quantum phase bubble, the most common method is to carefully monitor the fluctuations in the bubble caused by EM radiation undergoing phase shift and use a moderately sophisticated computer program to model what the bubble is "seeing".
II. Nature of the Cloaking Device
Many sophonts are astounded when first shown a picture of a cloaking device. Most models are somewhat smaller than your typical humanoid and weight under 50 kilograms, making them portable with ordinary muscle power.
How can such a small and lightweight object produce a quantum phase bubble sufficient to cloak something the size of a starship? The answer is, most cloaking devices do not function on their own. They are built to be connected to a ship's deflector shield grid, turning the ship's shield generators and deflector dish into a massive interphase generator. With the addition of a cloaking device, the ship's shields effectively change functions from shielding to producing a quantum phase bubble. This has several knock-on effects.
First, if the ship's shield generators are busy being an interphase generator, they are not functioning as shields or providing any protection to the ship. While it would be theoretically possible to build a ship with a second and separate set of shield generators to be deployed while cloaked, that runs into harmonic feedback issues of "shields within shields" that have proven so daunting for contemporary engineering. This is aside from the practical problem of running two systems that both utilize considerable amounts of power simultaneously.
Second, use of the cloaking effect causes the same wear-and-tear and maintenance issues on shield generators that using them to generate shields does. Thus traveling while cloaked at all times is impractical for the same reason starships do not typically have shields up at all time. Though note that it is very possible Klingon and/or Romulan engineers have made advances in extending time that cloaks can be maintained of which we are unaware. The exact duration their ships can maintain cloak is considered a military secret. Certainly if you were to install a cloaking device on a typical Federation ship, it could burn out the shield generators quickly.
While it is possible to generate a quantum phase bubble with nothing but a weak navigational shield on a shuttle, such "small ship cloaks" are far more easy to detect. One simple means of detecting cloaked ships, once one is alerted to look for them, is to use an interphase scanner on suspect volumes of space. However, interphase scanners are most effective at detecting shifts only slightly out of phase with our universe and less effective the more out of phase the space being scanned is. All quantum phase bubbles are not created equally, and the more power pushed into a cloaking field the "deeper" out of phase it goes and the harder to detect with an interphase scanner. Thus the truism that a cloaking devices will use as much energy as you can afford to feed it. The more power fed to a phasic generators, the less detectable its quantum phase bubble is.
It should be stated that while cloaking devices are not physically big, this does not mean they are inexpensive to construct. Within each cloaking device is a quantum phase seed, generated using using massive quantities of energy and stabilized by expenditure of exotic materials. Disconnecting a cloaking device from its power sources for transport is safe enough as long as it is not left energy deprived indefinitely, but you would not want to allow its stabilization matrix to become damaged during transit. Definitely don't drop one.
III. History of the Cloaking Device
One oft-recounted "fact" is that the Klingon Empire made use of cloaking technology during its series of conflicts with the Federation in the mid-23rd century, over a decade before acquiring cloaking devices from the Romulans. This is not strictly speaking true, as what the Klingon Empire was using was a starship stealth technology that resembled the effects of modern cloaking devices but did not involve generation of quantum phase bubbles.
The stealth technique the Klingons utilized was to generate a gravitational bending effect using their deflector dish. By bending EM radiation around their ships, they could achieve something like effective invisibility. However as discussed at the beginning of this essay, light bending invariably produces an observable distortion effect. Once the Federation was able to observe and identify the distortions produced, a simple computer algorithm paired with incoming sensor data effectively eliminated Klingon "invisibility". This would have been ineffective with a true quantum phase bubble cloaking device.
In the mid-23rd century such light bending required its own dedicated computer core and was considered extremely power intensive, but 24th century modern capital ships such as Excelsiors typically have the spare power and computing capacity to create similar effects more or less at will. Despite the many ways in which it can defeated, light bending is an important component of starship stealth in the modern galaxy. After all, the fact that someone can see you with a second look doesn't help if their suspicions fail to be aroused during the first look.
While it is foolishness to speak of the "first inventor" in a universe as large and old as this one, the Federation first encountered cloaking devices in 2266 when the USS Enterprise faced off with a Romulan "ghost ship" attacking outposts in the vicinity of the Neutral Zone. The name of the ship and her commander are still classified by the Romulan Star Empire, who to this day do not officially admit responsibility for the attacks. This ghost ship carried what we assume to be a prototype cloaking device. This earliest version was flawed in several important ways, the most important of which was that the quantum phase bubble was imperfect and reacted to produce an easily detectable subspace wake whenever the ghost ship was in motion. This weakness led to its defeat by the Enterprise, who lacked the experience with cloaking devices that would have allowed them to utilize other methods of detection.
Within two years the Romulan Star Empire had eliminated the flaws present in the prototype device and were preparing to mass deploy cloaking devices on their ships. Whatever discussions were being had in the Romulan Senate at that time remains under a veil of obscurity, but indications are they were contemplating a massive first strike against the Federation using their overwhelming advantage. Fortunately for the cause of peace, the Romulans suffered a critical intelligence breach and a working cloaking device fell into Federation hands in 2268, courtesy once again of the Enterprise.
Knowing that they would be far behind the Romulans in attempting to produce cloaking devices of their own, Starfleet Command made a fateful decision. Instead of attempting to duplicate the cloaking device, they devoted all resources to defeating the cloaking device. They used their single example cloak to test every possible method of cloaking detection thoroughly, with a preference for techniques that could be implemented using existing starship sensor technology. The advantage of having their own captured cloaking device to test on was incalculable, and in only six weeks Starfleet was able to report to the Federation President that Starfleet had no less than 3 active measures for defeating cloaks plus a computer algorithm that could be set to analysis passive sensor data for signs of cloaked ships.
The Federation then contacted the Romulan Star Empire, presented their data, and informed them that the Federation was building a network of gravitic sensors covering the Neutral Zone... sensors that would be far quicker to build than cloaking devices. Your move, Star Empire.
Looking back, many political scholars believe there was an element of bluff to the Federation's stance. The anti-cloaking measures were real, but they were literally being deployed straight out of the laboratory. Space is vast and sensors capable of covering the important parts of it would take time to deploy. Crew would require training. Sensor arrays would have to be refit rather than depending on Starfleet crews to jury-rig what they needed. If the Romulans had launched an attack with however many cloaked ships they had, it is very possible they could have done crippling damage due to anti-cloaking measures only barely starting to be implemented.
It was during the following discussions that Romulan negotiators asked if Federation would agree to forswear usage of cloaking devices in perpetuity. It has to be understood that this was not a serious request but rather an outrageous demand intended to evoke a reaction, a common tactic in diplomacy. In what witnesses describe as, "a display of pure swagger," the lead Federation negotiator Lusil Sukn immediately agreed. Before the surprised Romulans could determine a response, she went on to say that cloaking devices were "basically worthless once you know their tricks" and strongly imply that the concession was nothing of importance. The swagger worked. The Romulan negotiators went home, reported the Federation's absolute confidence in their ability to defeat cloaking devices, and the invasion was canceled.
Within a year of this meeting, the Klingon Empire had acquired and begun installing Romulan cloaking devices. The causality is tempting. Having at least briefly convinced the Romulan Senate that cloaking devices were now "basically worthless", were they then that much more willing to trade cloaking devices to the Klingons? However this is contradicted by the plain fact that the Romulans were in possession of Klingon D7 cruisers, the ship technology for which they supposedly traded cloaking devices, before the Federation acquired its sample cloaking device. Perhaps as these events recede further into the past the two Empires will someday declassify the relevant records and we will know the full story.
Another matter on which we have yet to learn the full story is the circumstances under which the Romulans invented the cloaking device. Of all the intelligent species the Federation has encountered, often with a level of technological sophistication comparable to our own, we still know of no one other than the Romulans that independently developed this technology. That puts it in a category quite different from warp drives and shields and phasers. Was it the result of a dedicated and well-financed government research program? Did a lone visionary first come up with the theory? Were the Romulans copying some species of which we have no knowledge? As with many matters, the Star Empire maintains its silence and we can only guess.
IV. Methods of Penetrating Cloaks
Speaking very broadly there are four, or perhaps five, ways to detect cloaked ships known to the Federation.
1. Gravitic Sensing
The first method is scanning with gravitic sensors. A cloaking device does nothing to hide the impact that the mass of a cloaked starship makes on spacetime. There are stealth techniques completely separate from cloaking devices that starships can and do use to hide their mass, but they are energy intensive and generally place the ship under some considerable strain. Cloaked ships are most vulnerable to gravitic sensors within the vacuum of interstellar space, where the bulge they make in spacetime is massive compared to that of the cosmic background radiation around them. After using a gravitic sensor on the right area of space, it quickly becomes apparent that there is an invisible mass in the general area, after which other cloak-penetrating methods can be employed. Gravitic sensors are the Federation's first line of defense along the Neutral Zone, though they return a large number of false positives as the mass of various bits of debris are detected and duly watched until it becomes apparent they aren't moving at starship speeds.
Gravitic sensors are far less effective when the cloaked starship is near some other massive object. Hiding in the "gravitic shadow" of a planet, a comet, or (if you're feeling particularly cheeky) the enemy ship searching for you is a common practice for the pilots of cloaked ships. However this simultaneously puts the ship at greater risk from other means of detection.
2. Active Sensing
The second method is bombardment of the suspected location of the ship with exotic particles and radiations that interact with quantum phase bubbles rather than being phased by them. Anti-protons are a popular choice, as it is relatively easy to scatter many of them over a broad area and look for the signature energy reaction when they hit a quantum phase bubble. Another is to create a metaphasic field, which has a shorter range but spreads much more rapidly and will cause micro-disruptions in any quantum phase bubble it encounters. There are several other possibilities, but they all suffer from the same weakness of an active scanning methods. A cloaked ship whose pilot anticipates your actions correctly can simply move out of your search area, hopefully avoiding triggering passive detection methods at the same time.
3. Passive Sensing
The third is method is passive detection of emissions and effects the cloaked ship is unable to conceal. As previously discussed, the phasing effect produced by cloaks of insufficient power can be detected by interphase scanners. There are also certain difficult to conceal exotic particles from antimatter reactions and warp nacelles, leading to an arms race between more sensitive sensor technology and ever-tighter emissions control. However the crown jewel of passive tracking is the subspace wake effect produced by warp travel.
It is well known that any use of warp travel produces some disruption in subspace, with the effect multiplied exponentially by additional warp fields in close proximity. An entire fleet of cloaked ships produces such a massive disruption in subspace that it's trivial for a station's sensors to track their approximate location and direction, even if the ships themselves are still invisible. Even a single ship can be tracked in this manner, given a skilled sensor operator. Of course, this too is subject to a back and forth of increasingly stealthy warp drives versus increasingly powerful sensor packages, but none of it has any connection to the cloaking device.
4. Background Mediums
The fourth method is interaction with a background medium. Consider a cloaked ship completely immersed in water. Its position would be obvious, as light passing through the area would illuminate a seeming vacuum "bubble" in which light traveled undistorted by the watery medium around it. A similar, though much lessened, effect occurs in atmospheres. Cloaks are meant to operate in deep space where the pseudo-phasic vacuum the quantum phase bubble presents to EM radiation is indistinguishable from the actual vacuum around it. It is in this that we see the essential dilemma for pilots of cloaked ships.
To hide their gravitic profile, a cloaked ship will desire to stay near objects with mass. However, it is precisely near such objects that outer space is least likely to be a true vacuum. Hover near a star and any solar flare will result in particles seemingly vanishing during the brief time they enter your cloaking field. Travel through a nebula and there will be a bubble of apparent vacuum where light travels undeterred by the nebula's particles. Etc. Etc. Pilots of cloaked ships must constantly balance hiding their gravitic profile with not accidentally giving themselves away by passing their "bubble" through the wrong space.
5. Telepathy
Some would say that telepathy is not technically a method of locating a cloaked ship, as it does nothing to locate the ship itself- only the minds of the ship's crew. Putting this pedantry aside, there are few telepaths capable of sensing much on the scale at which starships operate. Yet- we cannot toss aside telepathy as entirely useless. Certain Betazoid empaths have proved capable of sensing the emotions of sophonts on other starships at ranges of hundreds of kilometers away. It certainly presents yet another way in which a cloak's concealment might fall, if a cloaked ship were to carelessly enter such an empath's range.
V. Developments in Cloaking Technology
The most enthusiastic developers of cloaking technology are in two empires not known for their openness. Still, over the years some information has leaked out in the form of scientific papers and the observations of Starfleet as to how the cloaks of the respective empires have changed over the decades. It is for instance known from occasional propaganda that both empires retain an interest in so-called "phasic cloaking".
1. Phasic Cloaking
In actuality, so-called phasic cloaks and normal cloaks are in many ways the same technology. After all, if EM radiation can be phased out by contact with a cloak field then why not objects with mass? This is the dream of the so-called "invincible ship", an intangible ship through which all forms of conventional mass and high-energy particles simply pass through. Why not indeed?
This is a limitation of technology, engineering, and resources more than base science. Scientifically, phasic cloaking should be possible and there have been observed phenomenon that closely mimic the effect. In practice, creating a field that is simultaneously a quantum phase bubble and a molecular phase inverter has proven distressingly difficult, energy intensive, and prone to expensive failures.
It might also prove, paradoxically, to be distressingly vulnerable. A ship under phasic cloak would be invulnerable to conventional weapons, but how vulnerable would the phasing itself be? Some theoretical work suggests it would be possible to induce such a field to collapse and take everything inside itself with it. And yet, for some the dream of the invincible ship goes on.
2. Klingon Cloaking Developments
Klingons have long been frustrated with the inability of their ships to fire while cloaked. One might think this wouldn't be so restrictive- why not simply drop your cloak and fire in almost the same action? However, in actuality quantum phase fields are far from instant in their collapse. Shutting down a cloaking effect occurs on the speed of common humanoid perception. Parts of the ship snap into visibility almost immediately, but such visibility expands in patches and it can be between six and seven seconds before the cloak completely collapses and it is fully safe to fire without fear of the shot spiraling out of control. Klingon Commanders, no doubt correctly, consider six or seven seconds to be an eternity on the battlefield.
Accordingly, much Klingon development appears to have been devoted to shutting down cloaks faster. It is believed that they have shaved as much as two seconds off the process. This appears to be a feature of ship design and changes to their deflector shield generators rather than changes to the cloaking device itself, as it has only been observed on their newer ship designs. They have also altered their strategies. It is not fully safe to fire until a cloak has completely faded, but if your ship is at point blank range then accuracy is less of a concern. Reports from the Klingon-Romulan war are that Klingons have developed a strategy of decloaking at extreme close ranges to allow themselves to fire faster.
3. Romulan Cloaking Developments
Very little information leaks from the famously secretive Romulan Star Empire. However observations, stories from the war, and what propaganda they deign to release imply that they have been seeking to decrease the specific weaknesses of the cloak. We believe their modern day cloaked ships can maintain cloaks longer, regularly utilize means of reducing their gravitic profile, and produce a far smaller subspace wake when traveling cloaked. Again, all of these features are most likely advances in their ship designs to make them more suitable for stealth, rather than changes to the cloaking device itself.
V. Cloaks and the Federation
Why doesn't the Federation use cloaking devices? Many would blame the hasty promise given so many decades ago by Lusil Sukn, and it is true that the Federation has since continued that commitment. But then, why doesn't the Cardassian Union use cloaks? Why don't the Gorn use cloaking devices? What about the Harmony of Horizon? There are enough cloaking devices floating around these days, whether in cloaked shuttles or discount old model Klingon Birds of Prey, that any interstellar power that really wanted to get their hands on one probably could, and from then it is as they say, merely a problem of reverse engineering.
We cannot pretend to know the minds of alien governments, but I will offer a theory. Quantum phase bubbles are ultimately a dead end technology. Other than the continuing quixotic pursuit of phasic cloaking, improvements to cloaking technology seem to come largely from changes of ship design to better support use of cloaking rather than changes to the cloaking device itself. As a military technology, cloaking devices are one of those supernovas that provide an overwhelming advantage for a very brief period when no one understands how they function or how they can be beaten, and then the advantage swiftly fades. Much of the utility they provide can be replaced or supplemented by other starship stealth technologies we have touched on throughout this essay.
Perhaps Lusil Sukn was not so wrong after all when she claimed cloaking devices are, "basically worthless once you know their tricks". At the very least, to continue to fully take advantage of them a power must be willing to build their ship designs and military doctrine around their use. The Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire have thrown in and are willing to do so. No one else is.
But... but... I can image you asking dear reader, isn't it still true that a cloaking device is something you can install on any ship, ignore most of the time, and use only in that 1% of the time when it would prove useful? Why not have cloaking devices? Well this is true, and no doubt the Cardassians and the Gorn and such would be happy enough to simply buy a few cloaking devices for a rainy day if the Romulans or Klingons were in the business of selling cloaks. They are not.
Details are classified by their respective Empires, but we know that while cloaking devices are small, the machinery needed to produce and stabilize quantum phase seeds is not. It is a massive industrial expenditure, equivalent to a warp core production plant, to be able to build cloaking devices. They require exotic resources to produce. If you are starting from scratch with nothing but the theory on how it might be done, it doesn't get any easier. Much simpler if the Romulans were willing to lend a hand, but of course they are not.
So in conclusion, it's too expensive to produce cloaking devices if you aren't willing to go all-in, and the Romulans and Klingons do not sell their production on the open market. As I said, it's probable that most interstellar powers of any reach have acquired a secondhand cloak salvaged from somewhere or other, but a cloaking device of unknown history and service life is hardly something to which anyone would wish to entrust an important mission if they have any other options.
VI. Conclusion
It is my hope this essay has been informative on the functions, history, and future of this most fascinating of technologies. Despite all the disadvantages of cloaking technology, it is a truly unique invention and it is my hope that the Star Empire will someday release the name or names of its inventor so that they can be properly honored in the pantheon of scientific achievement.
Professor Estelle Garand, Department of Interstellar History
You know, it sounds like using those fields for stealth is a criminal waste compared to the exotic physics experiments you could do with those fields...
Indeed. For myself, I'm both intrigued and perturbed by the possibilities raised by this seemingly easy transmission or even transit to and from a nearby, if out-of-phase, alternate universe.
Indeed. For myself, I'm both intrigued and perturbed by the possibilities raised by this seemingly easy transmission or even transit to and from a nearby, if out-of-phase, alternate universe.
It was the salvaged Cloak from Chang's ship. It allowed Chang to fire torpedoes while cloaked in an effort to disrupt the peace conference when Azetbur's father was assassinated while onboard the Enterprise. The Cardassians somehow salvaged it and repurposed it on the Kadok Tor. but then lost it when the senior staff on the ship defected and started the Kadok Tor crisis. Oh and this was when Maryam Ajam was thought dead but had actually been captured by the Orions and sold to the Cardassians as a slave. She was returned to the Federation when the Kadok Tor was stopped at one of the colonies along the border. The Cloak was destroyed prior to the Kadok Tor engaging federation starships in the system where the Federation caught up to her.
Finally, for those wondering how a ship within can sense its surroundings while inside a quantum phase bubble, the most common method is to carefully monitor the fluctuations in the bubble caused by EM radiation undergoing phase shift and use a moderately sophisticated computer program to model what the bubble is "seeing".
The original Romulan cloaking device was inspired by Commander George Kirk bluffing the Romulans while on a very classified secret mission under Captain Robert April on the voyage of the newly constructed ship that would later be named Enterprise, but that was, as I said, very classified. (And one of the better Star Trek novels)
The original Romulan cloaking device was inspired by Commander George Kirk bluffing the Romulans while on a very classified secret mission under Captain Robert April on the voyage of the newly constructed ship that would later be named Enterprise, but that was, as I said, very classified. (And one of the better Star Trek novels)
Was that novel the one where Kirk was on that mission and bluffed the Romulans with a fake federation invasion of Romulus while they rescued that REDACTED?
Was that novel the one where Kirk was on that mission and bluffed the Romulans with a fake federation invasion of Romulus while they rescued that REDACTED?
Yes, that was the one. Half of the novel was James Kirk reading the letters his dad sent him as a kid, and seeing them differently as an adult vs. when he got them at age 12.
does no cloaking technology extend to the less effective versions/ reason i ask is it seems like it would be extremely useful for studying less developed cultures. we don't need to fool state of the art starships, just the pre-warp technology.
does no cloaking technology extend to the less effective versions/ reason i ask is it seems like it would be extremely useful for studying less developed cultures. we don't need to fool state of the art starships, just the pre-warp technology.
We had an event a few years back where one of our teams studying a native planet was exposed by their holodome failing. We do have cloaking devices that hold up to the naked eye at least. The prohibition is really about devices which can evade sensors as well, and mounting them on starships
Most of our ships can, and likely have, generated less effective versions during missions like those to the Dawiar. Additionally there are all other kinds of avenues to sensor stealth which we've used.
I think the economic argument against cloaks can be defeated by a function of scale.
Let's say you don't want to install cloaking devices across the entire fleet, because they aren't as useful as they sound once you know their tricks. Researching and tooling up to produce cloaking devices is a high fixed cost, and there's a variable cost per-cloak.
There will be some point at which the "high" fixed cost becomes tolerable - or rather, it is no longer "high" compared to the total resources available for military use, and some point where the utility of cloaked scoutships or cloaked intelligence ships becomes higher than the development cost, and some point at which forcing a smaller polity to spend on detection of said ships also becomes economically beneficial. It would have to be an extremely large and expanding polity, but I suggest that the point at which cloaking as a side project becomes economically feasible is something the United Federation of Planets and Harmony of Horizon will struggle with in the coming half century.
You would never install cloaks to the entire fleet, but you could make an economic and military intelligence argument for installing them to ships that don't intend to engage in pitched battle but yet are still military grade. You would also have to consider that sensor improvements in opposing fleets since the first Romulan cloak was developed mean that you'd have to advance very quickly to better cloaks if you wanted cloaking to be viable. However, note that opposing sensor abilities aren't enough to stop our current ships stealth techniques. There is likely some point at which investing in better conventional stealth techniques has diminishing returns over investing in cloaking devices to broaden what sensor abilities are needed to operate stealthily.
Of course, this also ignores political and diplomatic considerations, which would likely defeat the economic argument on their own.
It's a slight head canon of mine that cloaking tech works as stealth for all distances (close and far) and out in the open. And that conventional stealth techniques that we are proficient in works for either long-distances or require some sort of environmental assistance (nebula/polar orbit/etc).
For those that play DnD, conventional hide would be regular hide and hide in shadows while cloaking is hide in plain sight and invisibility?
If we extend that further, then there must indeed be a 'Greater Invisibility' version of the Cloak, with even more prohibitive requirements, an order of magnitude higher, but with the ability to acurately fire while cloaked.
We do know in the future, the Romulan Scimitar was able to sustain warp speeds, fire weapons, maintain shields, and be cloaked at the same time.
My suspicion is that the material cost to build one must be massive and that it is much more efficient to build a small fleet of regular capability ships instead. Probably has the cost of 4-5 explorers. A Sovereign and two Valdore-class ships were able to somewhat handle the Scimitar with some telepathic BS under ambush conditions. A 4+ ship fleet with tachyon detection or some other sensor tech networked together probably be a decent match for one, though not without losses.
Otherwise the Scimitar-class would be the default capital ship of the Romulan Empire.
In TNG the Enterprise D encountered a cloaked planet. Downside of the planetary cloak was it sterilzed the population under it. I don't think it was made clear in the episode if it was a cloak or more of a phase cloak. This is impressive because hiding a planetary body in a system with multiple planets is a neat trick given how they all affect each others orbits.
Type 6a shuttle Mirzakhani of Starfleet Command in Earth Spacedock
Now Starfleet's most common shuttle design, the Type 6 was introduced in 2280. It has two variants, the Type 6-a, and the stretched -6b.
The Type 6's predecessor – the Class F – was by then a significantly antiquated design. Having already received a number of refits, the Starship Design Bureau were directed to develop a replacement. With shuttlebays on line vessels increasing in size, especially on the then-upcoming Excelsior-class, many in Starfleet were pushing for a larger shuttlecraft; Starfleet Command agreed to a trial of a longer variant, which was to share components as far as possible with the base design.
Designed by the Shuttlecraft Division at San Francisco Fleet Yards, the first two prototypes were constructed at the facility's headquarters in Sausalito, assisted by final-year cadets from Starfleet Academy. Both are now on display at the Starfleet Museum's London annex.
Design Commonalities
A common complaint with the Class F was the insufficient cockpit viewports; the new design would have a single window covering entire dorsal nose, giving a significant field of view. This was well-received enough that the shuttle was quickly refitted with an additional pair to either side of the pilots.
Significantly improved miniaturisation in the years since the introduction of the Class F allowed the impulse engines of the new shuttle to be placed into pods on the side, opening up the full length of the fuselage for use; as a result, the craft could be equipped with a large hatch on the stern.
The 6a is currently the smallest Federation vessel capable of initiating a warp field by itself, rather than merely being able to sustain one after launch. This has greatly eased in-system transport, obviating the previous need for runabouts to fulfil this purpose. As with most Starfleet shuttle designs, the warp nacelles double as landing skids.
Type 6-a
The smaller Type 6-a has a length of 4.4 metres, slightly shorter than the Class F, but it utilises the space far more efficiently; the engines are in pods on the sides, and the rest of the engineering space is underfloor, and in the narrow nose ahead of the pilots. Entry and egress are only through the rear hatch, and, in an emergency, by blowing out the main windscreen.
It is generally considered inappropriate for cargo transport.
Type 6-b
The stretched Type 6-b is, despite the similarities with its sibling, a rather different beast. With a more powerful warp drive, which necessitated different nacelles, this shuttle can be used for longer journeys, and has an additional access hatch in the cockpit area. It also has an uprated impulse assembly. Some examples omit the rear hatch.
Fittings
The 6a has two widespread interior configurations: one with 10 passenger seats, common in civilian transportation, and a more spacious layout with two benches along each side, usually seen in Starfleet and member navies. There is also a medical version carrying a single bio-bed, and a few examples of modification into a large worker bee with a pair of manipulator arms. It does not carry a transporter device.
The 6b has the same common configurations writ larger: more seating, longer benches, multiple bio-beds and so on. It additionally finds use as a military dropship, and also for moving cargo unsuitable for transporters. Development on a dedicated cargo shuttle is ongoing.
Technology Control and Navigation Systems
The avionics of the shuttle are highly customisable. Starfleet examples tend to go all-glass, sometimes even forgoing a side-stick. The expectation is generally that the shuttle will fly itself along a course selected or programmed by the pilot, though it can of course still be controlled directly through the primary haptic feedback displays.
Navigation systems, while state-of-the-art for a craft of its size, are still heavily limited when compared to line starships even of the last century. It mostly relies on its Inertial Navigation System (which is isolated from the internal artificial gravity), Federation time-base beacons, and feedback from the scanners of a parent vessel or nearby station. In an emergency it can – when not at warp – triangulate its location from reference stars, usually pulsars and Cepheid variables.
The INS itself is comprised of a collection of laser accelerometers and ring laser gyroscopes.
Slower-than-Light Propulsion and Manoeuvring
Each shuttle carries a pair of impulse assemblies in the pods to each side. Manoeuvring in vacuum is mostly with the reaction control system and gyro-shielding.
In an atmosphere, lift, propulsion and control are all generated by directly inducing pressure differentials with the deflector shields. This has the beneficial side-effect of greatly reducing drag effects on the craft.
Warp
In accordance with Federation laws, civilian models of the shuttle have a locked-down warp drive, capable only of warp 3 (4 for the 6-b). Military and government versions carry unlocked drives and can generally reach warp 6 or 7, depending on the model – though there are persistent rumours of Starfleet Type 6s regularly exceeding this.
Other items
There is space for a small mission pod on the dorsal side of the craft. This can hold, among other items, specialised sensors, a supplementary life-support system, or even (rarely) a small phaser bank.
From Starships of the Federation Chapter 7: Starfleet Shuttlecraft and Auxiliaries (2312 Edition)
Why the locked down warp drive? UFP does not restrict warp drives much, its warp cores that are WMDs barely kept from exploding by teams of hyper qualified engineers, and therefore heavily restricted.
The low civilian warp speeds come from the heavily redundant, blackboxed, and foolproofed Civilian Warp Cores, which have very low output comparably.
If you want civilian shuttles to be slower, perhaps by law they must have smaller AM tanks? Or rely entirely on fusion?
