Just a thought; All the "Special" links in Ikari have hard numbers- 4 Wu Ming + 1 Clipper, or 4 Druze + 1 Tanko. There is no "Up to..." Does this mean that a broken Special Core link then can't be reforged without precisely those same number of units? ie; You take a 4 Wu Ming/Clipper core and the Clipper dies - you can now only make a Haris if you paid for the Haris option *and* don't already have a Haris on the board?
I believe you are correct, if you want to reform the special, you have to meet the unit requirement again. Please note, I said "reform". Your special won't break if the clipper dies, unless it was the link leader at the time of death or something else caused your fireteam to break. Of note: In the case of your Wu Ming special losing a clipper and it causing the link to break, you can STILL form a core Wu Ming fireteam if you have an extra Wu Ming around, as Wu Ming are "Fireteam: Core" in their profile for Ikari, and the special fireteam at the bottom is just a special case to make a unique fireteam. EDIT: I took another look at Fireteam cancellations, and I can see what the possible issue is I'm now not so certain of what I said before, as it sounds like losing a single Wu Ming will break a special core fireteam, as it no longer meets requirements of 4 Wu Ming for the team. Or do they mean the minimum for a Fireteam: Core? If they mean the minimum for a Fireteam: Core, then it should still be fine
I've been using the Army builder as my reference, so could be wrong info, or they're still busy sorting things out and wanted to get some reactions.