Stealth and the gun.

Hi everyone. After a couple of weeks away, I’m back (oh God no!).
Something has been bothering me for some time since I have been away. I have read various threads in this forum and several articles in various magazines concerning Chinas development of a “stealth” fighter – the J-15 I believe it is called, said to have a date of service entry scheduled for 2015. Okay, I know this is quite a while away but I was thinking about its possible implications. By 2015, the F-22 should be in full service with the USAF (and possibly Japan and Singapore, if congress allows their sale). The J-15 should be in slow rate production, so just for arguments sake let us say the PLAAF has 40 aircraft in front line service by late 2015. I have heard tales of the US government wanting to remove the F-22s gun as in the case of the EF-2000, to reduce cost. This is mainly because the F-22 is “too expensive an asset” to be used as a “mud mover” and given the fact that the idea is to destroy targets BVR to avoid ever being exposed to risk, the Raptor will not need a cannon. So the question is this:

Looking at a possible scenario (leave politics and economy out of the discussion as much as possible) in which China makes a move against US forces in the region with the J-15 as a major player, would a lack of cannon put the F-22 at extreme risk? Take into consideration that the J-15 will (I assume) be as stealthy as the F-22 and therefore be difficult to detect by AWACS or the F-22s onboard radar. Wouldn’t this increase the risk of the two stealth fighter coming into contact with one another at close range? Just like the F-4 during Vietnam, Americas “over confidence” in its technology could be its downfall.

P.S.

Keep up the good work with the threads, lots of interesting posts here!!!