• Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg flagged a “creative” solution to dissuading Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
• He said US could deploy all of its ballistic missile submarines to see if Putin is “really bluffing or not.”
• The US operates 14 ballistic missile submarines, each of which can carry 20 long range missiles.

Retired US Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg on Monday suggested what he seemed to tout as a “creative” solution to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — activate the entire US fleet of ballistic missile submarines to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin is “really bluffing or not” on nuclear threats.

“You know, we’ve generally got between five and six ballistic missile submarines — the boomers — at sea at any one time,” Kellogg said on the Fox News show “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

“Flush the whole fleet, put every boomer we’ve got at sea, and we can crew them and put them out there. And you say: ‘Look, we’re not going to back off from a nuclear concern that you’ve got,'” the general said.

“You know, go all in, bluff him — you know, he’s — let’s see if he’s really bluffing or not,” Kellogg continued.

—Acyn (@Acyn) March 8, 2022

The US currently operates a total of 14 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (otherwise known as boomers), each of which can carry 20 long-range missiles, according to the US Navy.

Kellogg, who served as national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence and as Chief of Staff for the National Security Council, said Putin’s generals would likely be “a little bit concerned.”

“You guys really want to do this, but you’ve got to become creative and you’ve got to put [Putin] on his back foot,” said Kellogg.

Watters had earlier asked Kellogg what he thought about “distracting the Russians” to make them “a little nervous.”

“What if we had the Japanese stir up a little trouble on their eastern flank?” Watters said. “What if we sent some naval assets into the Black Sea? Just say: ‘Hey, you know, we’re protecting Turkey, our NATO ally.’ What if, you know, we scrambled a few jets in the Baltics or something, something to make the Russians maybe think twice and take their eye off the ball a little bit?”

Kellogg didn’t directly respond to Watters’ ideas but offered his suggestion on submarines as an alternative solution.

But the former national security adviser’s comments on Putin seem to contradict what the general said just days earlier.

On Saturday, Kellogg said that “Putin does not bluff” while speaking on the Fox News show “Lawrence Jones Cross Country” about the Russian leader’s potential use of heavy artillery bombardment and cluster bombs on Ukraine.

“Putin does not bluff. When he said he was coming to Ukraine, he’s going to go into Ukraine. And we should have been building up armaments back then. We didn’t. We waited,” he said. “And part of the reason, we said, is because we believed if we did, it was going to be escalatory. Well, now we’re too late.”

Kellogg did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

On February 27, Putin placed Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert, increasing the possibility of launch. He blamed sanctions from the West that had been enacted to punish the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.