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Hey guys
i'm here to vent as this issue keeps bugging me, well the issue per se doesn't but the vehement reaction of one of my friends' does...and since i'm about the biggest 'trek novice here and regard everyone on here as personal friends, i hoped to seek peoples' opinions on the matter.
In TOS 'The Enterprise Incident', Spock mentions that starfleet intelligence reports that the romulans are ''now using vessels of klingon design''.
i assumed like the peoples' republic of china, tito's yugoslavia and a myriad of other nations from pakistan to malaysia, that the klingons like the soviets/federal russians, granted their ''allies'' (in the case of 'trek, the romulans), licences to produce their own indigenous versions of certain vehicles, via supplying the licenced schematics or a few physical examples for reverse engineering, rather than actually supply a substantial number.
My mate, having like me read, the non-cannon ''The Rihannsu'' and the star trek encyclopaedia now adamantly informs me that those vessels were purchased off the klingon government, is there any cannon supporting this?
Ps does anyone think that the romulans could have rearmed the klingon vessels with romulan weapons eg plasma torpedos and kept them as counter-insurgency vessels or to patrol backwaters in decades ahead, a bit like the wehrmacht and soviets using captured/obselete tanks for anti-partisan policing?

AFAIK we just have Spock's line, and anything else would be conjecture.

Personally, I believe that they may have simply "beefed" up their own ranks with Klingon ships............and once their own numbers were sufficient, naturally phased them out

Spock's line does seem to indicate license-built ships. I imagine it's part of (or the basis behind) the trade of cloaking technology.

And yes, I could very easily see the Romulans using those old ships as second-line ships, though there's no evidence of it. Since all we see of the "modern" Romulan navy is two different cruiser designs, there must be somethne to fill those less glamorous duties.

Interestingly, "The Art of the Impossible," the Lost Era novel which deals with Cardassian/Klingon hostilities and eventual Romulan meddling (including Narendra 3 and Khitomer), deals with this idea briefly. It suggests that various families in the Klingon High Council (including the eventual Duras family) sold Klingon ships "decades ago" (The novel took place in 2330's-2340's) and continued to sell military technology after the Praxis explosion due to need of money.

That doesn't really make much sense. Selling the designs themselves wouldn't make much money for anything. Also, didn't STVI hint that the KE was going to have to downsize the KDF to pay for the mass relocation of so many of its people?

Probably. It would make sense.

There is no canon I know of either way.

Several of the novels state that the Romulans traded for the ships; cloaking technology given to the Klingons in exchange for a bunch of cruisers in return. Interestingly the Klingons gave them poorly maintained ships which were near the end of their useful life, forcing the Romulans to use them as best they could for many years afterwards. It generated a good deal of animosity from the Romulans towards the Klingons.

GrahamKennedy wrote:There is no canon I know of either way.

Several of the novels state that the Romulans traded for the ships; cloaking technology given to the Klingons in exchange for a bunch of cruisers in return. Interestingly the Klingons gave them poorly maintained ships which were near the end of their useful life, forcing the Romulans to use them as best they could for many years afterwards. It generated a good deal of animosity from the Romulans towards the Klingons.

Maybe a little like the USSR and PRC? China asked for weapons when they went into Korea and was told they had to pay for them. Evidently this also contributed to the growing animosity between the Communist governments.

That would explain why the Romulans and Klingons hate each other so much. I bet after a raw deal the Romulans went for some payback. Much like maybe trying to start a war between the UFP and the KE... seems like a STVI maybe...

At the same time, the Klingons always seem to refer to Romulans as "honorless p'Tachs" (did I spell that right?!?!).
Is that on account of their sneaky-sneaky ways, or did they rip off the Klingons with inferior cloak technology:?:

The Klingons title anyone they don't like and lacking Honor.

That's pretty much it. For the Klingons, honour is anything that profits the Klingon Empire (as Worf admitted in WotW). Presumably, anything that profits their enemies is dishonourable.

Rochey wrote:That's pretty much it. For the Klingons, honour is anything that profits that specific Klingon (as Worf admitted in WotW). Presumably, anything that profits their enemies is dishonourable.

Fixed

Good catch.