MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Russia is capable of responding to the US destroyer McCampbell’s emergence in the vicinity of the Peter the Great Bay in Russia’s Far East by sending its submarines to the Gulf of Mexico, but it prefers to perform the routine duties, the editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defense magazine, Igor Korotchenko, told TASS in an interview.

The US destroyer USS McCampbell on Wednesday went past the Peter the Great Bay off Russia’s Primorye Region and the base of Russia’s Pacific Fleet there. The US military said the purpose of the operation was "to challenge Russia’s excessive maritime claims."

"Our submarines, too, might have surfaced suddenly some place in the Gulf of Mexico to shock America. We have the corresponding forces of our submarine fleet there. We do not do that for the simple reason our purpose is not to show off in such a silly way, but to cope with the assigned tasks," Korotchenko said.

He warned that attempts at intimidating Russia were "useless and senseless."

"Russia has conducted a self-sufficient policy of its own and it keeps conducting it. We defended our interests all along and we continue to do so," Korotchenko said.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, The USS Campbell did not come closer than 100 kilometers to Russia’s territorial waters. Its voyage was monitored by the Russian Pacific Fleet’s anti-submarine ship The Admiral Tributs and naval aviation. The Defense Ministry said the Russian military was keeping track of the US ship. On Wednesday noon it was 400 kilometers away from the Russian shore in the central part of the Sea of Japan.

The USS McCampbell is a 35th Arleigh Burke class destroyer. Its full displacement is 9,648 tonnes, length 155 meters, width 20 meters and crew 380 men. Its main weapons are two Mk 41 universal vertical guided missile launchers (96 compartments) capable of launching Tomahawk missiles.