Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday took stock of the preparedness of the country's nuclear arsenal with the top security brass, including Chiefs of the three Services. The command and control structures of the forces handling the arsenal are understood to have come up for discussion at the biennial meeting of the Nuclear Command Authority headed by the Prime Minister.

The meeting was attended by National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh, Air Chief N A K Browne and Naval Chief D K Joshi. The critical Tri-Service Strategic Forces Command was created in 2003 to manage and administer the country's nuclear arsenal.