Although extreme low-speed maneuvering has limited utility in modern air combat, for the F-22 its ability to quickly turn the tables on its enemy at low-speed is more important than it would be otherwise due to the lack of specific equipment on the jet. Although the Raptor now fields the AIM-9X Sidewinder, it still lacks a helmet mounted sight to aim the missile at targets located far off the jet's centerline axis.

The next generation Sidewinder does have a wider field of view, longer detection range, and can still be cued to targets far off boresight by the F-22's APG-77 AESA radar, but in hard maneuvering fights, the pilot still has to point the jet at the target to some degree in order to get the missile to lock on and thus kill the enemy. Most fighters currently in service, including Russia's thrust vectoring types, have helmet mounted sights to aim their short-range air-to-air missiles.

You can read all about these tactics and how they apply to various aircraft and scenarios in this previous piece, but suffice it to say, beyond one-versus one dogfights, ending up in a very low energy state is a bad place to be whether you vanquish an enemy fighter or not. Yet convoluted air combat environments with strict rules of engagement, like the one over Syria, remind us that within-visual-range air combat can't be fully discounted. This is also true as a result of new tactics, electronic warfare systems, advanced missiles, and stealthy aircraft that are proliferating around the globe. Beyond that, in some cases F-22 pilots will need to use all their missiles, and no, the AIM-9X is not there for purely defensive purposes, nor is the gun.