Cloaking devises.....

[Aprentize]

Ok, this has been batheringmy for a looooooong time, ever since ep1 came out.

Captain Needa seems to be a bright man. And when he says "no ship that small has a cloaking devise", it appears to me that he knows what he's talking about. Like if he where meaning "no ship that small COULD not possebly have a cloaking devise. It against modern physics." BUT, how the heck can the sith infiltrator have a cloaking devise then??? The SI is much smaller than MF.

Any suggestions.......

[Darth McBain]

Good point, although I'm not so sure he "knows" what he's talking about. It could be that he knows what will happen to him should Vader find out and he is trying to rationalize his failure to the rest of the crew. Unfortunately, he finds little help among them ("Well, there's no trace of them sir"), and we all know what eventually happens to him ("Apology accepted, Captain Needa").
Perhaps the Empire holds the cloaking technology and only sells it to large ships (which could be detected by other means anyway), so they are not giving away a strategic advantage. But with a ship like the Millenium Falcon, you would think that Han Solo and Lando Calrissian are both sneaky enough to purchase such cloaking items on a black market, so that doesn't quite hold water either.
You've brought up an interesting topic. I'd be interested to hear other opinions myself...

[Doc Milo]

I might be wrong, but I don't remember the movie making any reference to the Sith Infiltrator having a cloaking device. Not that it didn't, but I just don't remember it -- was it in the novelization?

[bronto]

I think that it's mentioned on the Insider's Guide CD-ROM. Giving Maul's ship a cloaking devise probably did not come from Lucas'imagination.

[Bromine]

Here's my reasoning: Sidious would have access to the most cutting edge and expensive technology in existence. It's quite possible that in the 30+ years between TPM and ESB, cloaking technology was still extremely expensive and almost impossible to get ahold of. Maul's ship was undoubtedly VERY special.
I liken it to police chasing a car down the street, following it into a blind alley and the car disappearing. The police think, "where'd it go? It couldn't have just disappeared!" When, at the same time, the military is developing invisibility technology. It's just that for all intents and purposes, it's reasonable to assume the car didn't just disappear. Just as it was reasonable to assume that the Millennium Falcon was too small to have a cloaking device.

[Aprentize]

So you mean Cpt. Needa just asumed that it had no cloaking devise, since its such a "hunk a junk".
Good point....