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In the DS9 episode 'Blaze of Glory', Martok tells Sisko that the Klingons gave the Maquis thirty cloaking devices. It's believed that the Maquis used them on missiles to launch against Cardassia, but this turns out to all be a bluff to liberate Eddington and free the remaining Maquis from the Dominion attacking their colonies. So, if the Klingons gave the Maquis 30 cloaking devices, and the Maquis didn't really use them on missiles, where did they go?

Got blown up before they could be used? Got blown up on ships that they were used on? The diminion could see through cloaks pretty easily iirc. The Defiant got caught by them a few times. That's why they had to use that capture bugship ro infiltrate.

Logically like any technology not all cloaks are created equal, its doubtful the Klingon's would give the Defiant the very latest technology they had. Though its not impossible either, depending on the threat the Klingon's really saw from the Dominion and how far they really trusted the Federation.

That said even if Defiant had the best cloak around, the fact that its totally not designed for cloaked operations and based on a completely different design background would almost surely reduce the effectiveness of the cloak. Like the exhaust pipe issue from Star Trek 6; on later models of Klingon ship probably incorporated bigger and more elaborate means of suppressing that signature independent of the cloak itself. Like devices to cool the gases emitted, and catalytically break them down to better resemble random interseller dust and hydrogen. Short term storage tanks for use when the enemy is close might also be involved. Defiant would probably not have technology like this, or a more limited form, just because it was never meant to have it, and it doesn't have a giant space muffler strapped to the exterior the way it probably would if this was Star Wars.

The Maquis were hard up for secure bases, let alone shipyards,and had a mixture of ships, it seems unlikely that any cloaking devices they got would work ideally, let alone for any length of time. They probably broke down one by one, got cannibalized to keep others going (somehow Klingons and good logistics seem unlikely) until nothing was left operational or all remaining ships were destroyed fighting conventionally against the Dominion.

The Klingon's themselves presumably have at least the low thousands of ships given the numbers thrown around in DS9, the reality is 30 cloaked vessels probably really don't mean that much when they aren't giant war birds. They'd have helped the Maquis survive rather then win.

Didn't the USS Defiant have romulan cloak though not a klingon one? I seem to remember that a big deal was made that the Defiant needed to have RSE observer on-board to make sure the cloak was used only where intended. Though I still think that Romulans probably didn't give UFP their top of the line model but rather an older one.

Lord Revan wrote:Didn't the USS Defiant have romulan cloak though not a klingon one? I seem to remember that a big deal was made that the Defiant needed to have RSE observer on-board to make sure the cloak was used only where intended. Though I still think that Romulans probably didn't give UFP their top of the line model but rather an older one.

That's correct, the Romulans gave the Defiant the cloaking device. The agreement was that the Defiant would only use the cloaking device in the gamma quadrant and in exchange the Feds would give the Romulans all the data they collected.

Turns out that wasn't a unique situation either given that the Romulans gave the Cardassians cloaks in order to mount their joint-offensive against the Founder's homeworld.

Maybe the Maquis had a few more Dreadnoughts, just couldn't find the only person who can reprogram them. that was the bluff, sometimes the best lies are the truth, just a matter of details.

They got the Dreadnoughts, installed the cloaks...but the only Maquis who can reprogram the Dreadnoughts to attack Cardies is in the Delta Quadrant

The Dominion's sweep of the DMZ was pretty thorough, and seeing as the cloaks were never mentioned again I think its safe to presume that most were destroyed and/or captured when the Dominion swept through the DMZ.

Tribble wrote:The Dominion's sweep of the DMZ was pretty thorough, and seeing as the cloaks were never mentioned again I think its safe to presume that most were destroyed and/or captured when the Dominion swept through the DMZ.

Yea. I presume the cloaked ships caused some havoc for awhile but were hunted down.

That said, it could be a way to explain some Maquis survival if one wanted to revisit the subject.