The 7th Marine Brigade (), commonly known as the " Jiaolong Commandos" or as the "Sea Dragons" (), is a

special operations forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

in the People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps. The brigade is based in

Sanya Sanya; Chinese postal romanization, also spelled Samah is the southernmost city on Hainan Island, and one of the four prefecture-level cities of Hainan, Hainan Province in Southeast China, South China. According to the Sixth National Populati ...

, Hainan Island. The brigade was named the Special Operations Brigade (). According to a 2025

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

article, the Jiaolong Commandos is now named the 7th Marine Brigade. The brigade has at least three special operations battalions and one reconnaissance battalion.

History

The unit was founded as the Naval Special Operations Battalion () in 2002. On 26 December 2008, 70 soldiers from the unit were deployed to Somalia, where they conducted anti-piracy operations. In 2015, Jiaolong commandos participated in the evacuation of 571 Chinese citizens and over 200 other foreign nationals from Yemen after a Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthi rebel group ( Yemen Civil War). In April 2017 the Tuvalu-registered cargo ship ''OS35'' was hijacked by Somali pirates in the waters of the Gulf of Aden. At the time, the PLA Navy's Yulin, a

Type 054A Frigate The Type 054A (NATO/ OSD Jiangkai II) is a Ship class, class of guided-missile frigate from the People's Republic of China. It is a development of the Type 054 frigate; compared to its predecessor, the Type 054A has medium-range air defense capa ...

in China's South Sea Fleet was participating in anti-piracy patrols. Sixteen PLA Navy Special Forces, led by a special forces platoon leader, boarded the ship and rescued the crew. On 5 May 2017, three pirates were captured by the unit's personnel and handed over to the Somali Police Force.

Missions

The brigade is used for

Visit, board, search, and seizure Visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) is the term used by United States military and law enforcement agencies for Naval boarding, maritime boarding actions and tactics. VBSS teams are designed to capture enemy vessels, combat Counter-terrorism ...

(VBSS), anti-piracy,

air assault Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, such as helicopters, to seize and hold key terrain that has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind enemy l ...

, direct action, combat diving,

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

and

amphibious reconnaissance Amphibious reconnaissance consists of ground and naval reconnaissance in the littoral area bordering coastal or ocean areas. History Evolution of the doctrine At the turn of the 20th century, amphibious reconnaissance was first conceived ...

In popular culture

The 2018 film ''

Operation Red Sea ''Operation Red Sea'' () is a 2018 action war film directed by Dante Lam and starring Zhang Yi, Huang Jingyu, Hai Qing, Du Jiang and Jiang Luxia. A Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, the film is loosely based on the evacuation of Chinese commu ...

'' is loosely based on the unit's involvement in the evacuation of Chinese and foreign nationals in the Yemeni Civil War and also depicts the unit.

Equipment

QBZ-95 The Type 95 automatic rifle () or QBZ-95 is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured by Norinco, and issued since 1995 as the service rifle for the People's Liberation Army, People's Armed Police, and various law enforcement in China, la ...

assault rifle * QBZ-191 assault rifle *

QSZ-92 The QSZ-92, sometimes known as the Type 92 (), is a semi-automatic pistol designed by Norinco. History The decision to develop a new pistol was made in 1987 to replace the Type 54 pistol, Type 54/64/77. Research and development started in 1992. ...

semi-auto pistol * QBS-06 underwater assault rifle * QCQ-171 sub machine gun * QBU-10 sniper rifle *

Night-vision device A night-vision device (NVD), also known as a night optical/observation device (NOD) or night-vision goggle (NVG), is an Optoelectronics, optoelectronic device that allows visualization of images in low levels of light, improving the user's nig ...

s *

Unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s (drones)

References

Bibliography

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