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I was wondering how a warrior race like the Klingons managed to acquired such an advanced technology, for the Star Trek universe, as cloaking?

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    Even Klingons have scientists, you know.
    – Brian Ortiz
    Commented Jun 15, 2011 at 6:39
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    @Brian Ortiz: Romulans have scientists as well, but they also acquire large amounts of tech via spying. So, what is your point?
    – mbx
    Commented Jun 15, 2011 at 6:53
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    @mbx I think Brian was addressing the inherent racism in this question. "How did Klingons manage to acquire cloaking?" Klingons are people too! When you cut them, do they not bleed?
    – user1027
    Commented Jun 15, 2011 at 14:23
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    In the finale of Voyager, it was also a Klingon scientist that created the time machine that future Janeway used to go back and give advanced technology to the "present" Janeway in the Delta Quadrant. So just because you're tough, doesn't mean your not smart. ;)
    – BBlake
    Commented Jun 15, 2011 at 18:55
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    A better question would be why the Klingons would sneak around cloaked like Romulan cowards, instead of approaching the enemy openly? Where is the honor in that?! Of course this question would be off topic here... :(
    – Dima
    Commented Jun 15, 2011 at 18:57

2 Answers 2

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The Klingons received the technology in exchange for some battle cruisers from the Romulans around 2268, when the two civilizations shared a political alliance (both startrek.com and the ST:TNG Technical Manual state this).

In TOS:"The Enterprise Incident" - caught in the Neutral Zone, the Enterprise was surrounded by a mixed pack of Romulan warbirds and [what appeared to be] Klingon D7 cruisers (one being the commanding vessel). Spock noted that Star Fleet suspected the Romulans to be using Klingon designed ships, but did not know why because the D7 had no clear advantage over the Romulan warbird ... unless it also was adaptable to the cloaking device [first encountered in TOS:"Balance Of Terror"].

In the animated series episode The Time Trap, the Klingon vessel Klothos (captained by the famous Captain Kor) uses the cloak in the Battle of Caleb IV; as this was 2269, it's likely the earliest mention of Klingons making use of the technology.

Memory Alpha has more information about cloaking technology in the Star Trek universe.

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    So it was only after 2268 that the Romulans utilized Klingon D-7 battle cruisers?
    – JAB
    Commented Jun 15, 2011 at 13:57
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    I had heard, out-of-universe, it was after someone had broken the warbird model.
    – Verdan
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 2:41
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in the past there was an exchange of technology ,200 d-7 klingon decommisioned battle cruisers in exchanged for cloaking techology the romulans had only impulse powered warbirds since the plasma torpedoes took up so much power the KRd-7 klingon bodies with plasma torpedoes installed the warp technology could handle the plasma torpedoes and cloaking devices the klingons reversed engineered the cloaking device so as to cloak ships problem is klingons thought bigger was better so the power requirement became to little up to the bigger ships so the klingons developed the br'el scout ship bird of prey the next in line was the greater bird of prey and finally the great warbird br'en same ship only 3 different sizes the romulans tried to use the ka'tinga but grew out of favor because it was obselete after a while and kept the remember they had time to develop the romulan warbird dedriex class the green 1 that we are familiar with

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  • Was this in one of the novels?
    – Jason Baker
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 1:35
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    Was this in one sentence? :O
    – Jane S
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 3:02

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