>>IIRC the Defiant has a cloaking device, or at least it did.
>
>It's not a characteristic of the class, though; Defiant herself
>is the only one that has one. Part of that ongoing systems-testbed
>role, you know.

Actually, the Defiant's a loan item from the Romulan Star Empire. Part of the treaty that brought them into the Dominion War on the side of the Federation-Klingon alliance. I do believe that the terms of the previous treaty between the Romulan Star Empire and the UFP forbade Starfleet from developing their own cloaking device; since the Defiant is using a Romulan cloaking device, Starfleet hasn't developed their own cloaking device, in the same way that the WDF has no black ops.

(Think about the episode of TNG wherein that particular clause of the treaty was discussed. Of course Starfleet doesn't have their own cloaking device. Ahem.)

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