The predecessor of the Thunder Dragon Squad is the "Dragon Shadow" Task Force, a highly secretive special operations unit established by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the early 21st century. This unit is directly under the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission. Its members are selected from the best of the special forces of the entire army. It has only 36 people. However, it is responsible for top tasks that cannot be disclosed, such as transnational counter-terrorism, high-risk target raids, and strategic intelligence reconnaissance. Its existence has been classified as the top secret of the country for a long time. The file number is "0914". Even most military generals only know its code name.
From "Dragon Shadow" to "Thunder Dragon": Transformation and mission upgrade
In 201X, with the complexity of the international security situation, special operations in a single field have been unable to deal with new threats (such as hybrid cyber and physical warfare, transnational criminal groups, and the proliferation of chemical weapons by extremist organizations, etc.). During an anti-terrorism operation in the Arctic Circle codenamed "Ice Breaking", the "Dragon Shadow" task force exposed its shortcomings of "excessive specialization but insufficient flexibility" due to insufficient equipment adaptability and limited coordination in multiple scenarios.
After this operation, the Central Military Commission decided to comprehensively upgrade the "Dragon Shadow":
- Scale expansion: expanded from 36 to 120 people, divided into 4 combat teams ("Thunder", "Lightning", "Wind" and "Rain"), each team has 30 people, and added professional positions such as technical support, psychological warfare, and drone coordination;
-Function expansion: From "pure combat" to "multi-functional assault", covering all-scenario tasks such as infiltration behind enemy lines, urban counter-terrorism, sea boarding, plateau anti-narcotics, nuclear, biological and chemical emergency response, and even including the evacuation of overseas nationals and humanitarian relief in high-risk areas
