Borg Cloaking Devices

[TGLS]

So the Borg have assimilated so many species and cultures that they needed to leave the galaxy and go to fluidic space and meet Species 8472 so they could find more technology to assimilate. So how come they never cloaked any of their cubes? You think that's something they'd be all in favour of, make it easier to sneak up on ships to assimilate and the like. But they never do. Are they unaware of the technology (seems unlikely)?

Just a thought.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Maybe it conflicts with their straight-forward ethos? After all, they start every encounter by telling their opponents EXACTLY what they intend to do.

[Robovski]

Maybe it conflicts with their straight-forward ethos? After all, they start every encounter by telling their opponents EXACTLY what they intend to do.

Yeah, they may decide it is inefficient for the cubes anyway. Do they do infiltration missions? If they do I imagine they have cloaking ships or even borg soldiers.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

In the TOS era, there's a massive trade-off that comes with the cloaking device, and that generally seems to hold true in the TNG era as well. Assuming they've assimilated the technology, the Borg may have simply judged the use of cloaking technology as an impractical means of gathering technology.

[Dînadan]

Surely a better question is why they bother beaming over drones over as a first wave instead of beaming over a bomb/canister/etc that aerosolises nanoprobes to assimilate the crew and computer stations and only then send drones over. Even if the life support systems seal off the affected area to prevent it spreading through the ship via the air ducts, its secure a beachhead and allow them to beam over drones without risking the first wave getting gunned down by security.

Actually, thinking about that, surely it'd be most efficient for them to send a cloaked ship that could bypass patrols and sensor stations which then launches probes into the atmosphere of a planet which in turn launch nanoprobes into the air (such as a biological weapon would) and assimilate the general populace that way (or small patches of them as it'd need a lot of probes to be able to deliver enough nanoprobes to assimilate a whole planet).

[GloatingSwine]

I think the answer to this can be determined from three words: "Resistance is futile".

The Borg do not care about cloaking technology, they do not care that you know they are coming, they do not care if you fight back. They're going to win anyway.

They don't bother beaming over a canister of nanoprobes because they don't care any more about drones than they do about nanoprobes. Losing a couple of drones is less significant to the Borg than some oil spitting on your hand from the frying pan, it's barely an inconvenience and you should stop being such a wimp and get on with frying those sausages. Drones are maybe on the level of individual skin cells to the Borg.

They aren't efficient, they don't do tactics, because they don't regard any component of the Borg as being signficant.

[Riedquat]

They aren't efficient, they don't do tactics, because they don't regard any component of the Borg as being signficant.

Seven is pretty obsessed with efficiency.

There isn't much sign of technological adaptability despite what they claim. Oh, they can adapt themselves to deal with whatever's used against them but they don't appear to have much interest in using it themselves. To throw an idea out, they're extremely risk-averse. Oh, not in going having a fight of course, but in chosing a course of action different from what they've done before. Stick with what you know and has worked in the past, any deviation is too great a chance. Mass groupthink could possibly lead to this (might depend upon how prevalent such attitudes are in the cultures they've assimilated too).

[Robovski]

They do seem very ''if it ain't broke...'' in approach to operations and how they do things.

[jadenova]

The Borg like letting people know that they are coming. They get pleasure from watching species shit their pants.