Episode Summary: Whether discussing Operation Epic Fury from a strategic, operational, or tactical vantage, there&#x27;s no doubt that China watched the conflict with extreme attention. There are significant lessons that range from gaining air superiority through a system of systems approach, the value of artificial intelligence, to the importance of ensuring multi-faceted resilience--whether that be diversified command and control structures, magazine depth, air and missile defense, or factors tied to sustaining the broader economy during a conflict. Heather &quot;Lucky&quot; Penney sits down with Mitchell Institute&#x27;s China expert Mike &quot;JDAM&quot; Dahm to discuss these crucial issues. They also explore broader Chinese security developments--from Taiwan defense considerations to President Trump&#x27;s most recent trip to Beijing. Credits: Host: Heather &quot;Lucky&quot; Penney, Director of Research, The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Producer: Shane Thin Executive Producer: Douglas Birkey Guest: J. Michael &quot;JDAM&quot; Dahm, Senior Resident Fellow for Aerospace and China Studies, The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Links: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3GbA5Of Website: https://mitchellaerospacepower.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MitchellStudies Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mitchell.Institute.Aerospace LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nzBisb Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mitchellstudies/ #MitchellStudies #AerospaceAdvantage #China #AirForce

What Lessons is China Taking from Epic Fury? Key Considerations — Ep. 295

The Aerospace Advantage

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Aerospace Advantage

## Participants

- **Heather "Lucky" Penney** (The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies)
- **J. Michael "JDAM" Dahm** (The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies)

## Transcript

Welcome to the Aerospace Advantage podcast, brought to you by PenFed. I'm your host, Heather Lucky-Penney. Here on the Aerospace Advantage, we speak with leaders in the armed forces, industry, and other subject matter experts to explore the intersection of strategy, operational concepts, technology, and policy when it comes to air and space power. Folks, welcome back. So we haven't talked about China on the podcast for a little while, and we thought it was time for an update.

So I'm happy to welcome back to the podcast our very own China expert, Mike Dahm, J-Dam. Good to be here, Heather. It's been a while. All of our dummies, I'm sure, are really excited for this episode. In our last exciting episode, you talked a lot about your visit to Taiwan and what you learned there. What's been going on in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China over the past several months? Yeah. The first few months of 2026 were really relatively quiet, at least on the military front.

There have been none of the named exercises, the big flash-in-the-pan exercises that we saw, things like joint sword or the one that we talked about on the last podcast, which happened at the very end of December 2025, Mission Justice 2025. That was a biggie too. Yeah. And some of that I think is down to China just not wanting to take the attention off the war in Iran and some of the bad press that the United States and the United States military may be getting in that war.

They just didn't want to distract from those headlines and call attention to what might or might not be happening in East Asia. They could be just trying to not draw adverse attention, but could they potentially be trying to not signal a potential invasion? Yeah. I don't think invasion is on the horizon. But I think certainly if you look at the pattern of activity, especially in and around Taiwan, they are trying to keep a low profile.

After the war kicked off at the end of February, right, there was almost zero activity. Now, I mean, it's the kind of thing that you might see in a safety stand down or something like that, but they just went for almost two weeks without any significant activity in and around Taiwan after the war in Iran started. I wonder if that also could be maybe an effort to retain stability and not try to provoke the U.S.

Yeah. No, I think when your chief rival is in crisis, you don't necessarily go poking at them and draw their focus over to you because they might lash out in some kind of unexpected ways. There were also some political events in China. There's usually a PLA stand down around what they call the two sessions, which is the sort of pro forma meeting of the rubber stamp Chinese legislature in March. It was a pretty quiet beginning to 2026.

Oka...

What Lessons is China Taking from Epic Fury? Key Considerations — Ep. 295

Transcript

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What Lessons is China Taking from Epic Fury? Key Considerations — Ep. 295

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.