It did for about five minutes, 10-12 years ago, when we were looking at withdrawal of the F-14 from service (thanks to Big Dick Cheney and "41") with no replacement anywhere close to its performance in sight. (Still the situation, we're just forging ahead without a solution.)
At that time, someone put forward the idea in forums like this one of buying and licensing Su-33 airframes from Sukhoi, and then engining and equipping them like F-14's over here. That was the idea. Su-33's are rangy like the F-14D "Bombcat" and they're capable of carrying a big missile like the AIM-54B/C Phoenix. (The Su-33 can carry the big R-33/33E "Amos" "AWACS-killer" LRAAM and so would presumably be capable of carrying AIM-54 and AIM-120 "Slammers" and the Pegasus ASAT/ABM weapon.)
Competing and better ideas were dragging out the F-14 followon blueprints Grumman had in a drawer somewhere (there were three versions, hot, medium-hot, and super-incandescently hot).
We're trying to get by with the much-shorter-range, Phoenix-less F/A-18 E/F "Superbug". Which is bad news, since we're going to have trouble protecting the carriers, the Fleet, and our MEU's ashore with the aircraft and carrier shortage we've been hobbling along with since 2005. We just haven't yet had our butts exposed by a major conflict so far -- we've been lucky.
Bugs and Slammers is a virtuous combination, don't get me wrong, but they haven't anything like the range, payload, and combat virtuosity that the F-14's loaded up with Phoenix missiles did. It looks like our luck is running out now, as China and Russia muscle up to take us on, and even the Iranians want a piece of us.
Yes but instead we liberated both Iraq and Afghanistan , then rebuilt them and turned them into Democratic versions of Hong Kong.
We are universally respected around the world for those two successes, as much $$$ and manpower as it cost.
Let Russia or China beat that,