A Trump-era national security official suggested the US deploy all of its ballistic-missile submarines to see whether Putin is 'really bluffing'

• Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg on Monday suggested the US confront Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats.
• He said the US could deploy all its ballistic-missile submarines to see whether Putin was bluffing.

Retired US Lt. Gen. 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 whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is "really bluffing" about his 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," he continued.

Putin placed Russia's nuclear-deterrence forces on high alert on February 27, three days after his forces invaded Ukraine. He blamed sanctions from the West that had been enacted to punish the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

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

Kellogg, who served as national security advisor to Vice President Mike Pence and as chief of staff for the National Security Council, said Putin's generals would probably 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 him on his back foot," Kellogg said.

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 official's comments on Putin seemed to contradict what he said just days earlier.

On Saturday, Kellogg said Putin "does not bluff" while speaking on the Fox News show "Lawrence Jones Cross Country" about whether the Russian leader might use of heavy artillery bombardment and cluster bombs in Ukraine.

"Putin does not bluff," he said. "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. 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 didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.