NORTH COUNTY —— San Diego County's military force will suffer only small cuts and consolidations in the next several years, according to the recommendations made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday.

While Rumsfeld proposed no major base closures in the San Diego area, his report suggested ways to shuffle or shed redundant or obsolete programs to save billions of dollars and realign the military from the Cold War to the so-called War on Terror.

While some of the details in the 398-page "Base Closure and Realignment Report" sometimes differ slightly from the shorter summary issued to local lawmakers and the media Friday, the major proposals for San Diego County region that appear in both reports include the following:

Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station

Perhaps the biggest shock to North County was a proposal to move 118 civilian workers from the Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station.

The workers are employees of what the military calls a "tenant" organization that occupies a section of the facility, but has nothing to do with the functions of the base, according to Greg Smith, the spokesman for the Fallbrook weapons depot.

The Marine Corps Programs division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, a tenant organization at the weapons depot, would be transferred to China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station under the Pentagon plan.

Smith said none of the proposed changes would affect the operations of the weapons station, which stores, repairs and supplies weapons such as missiles and bombs to naval vessels and Marine aviation units deployed aboard those ships.

San Diego Naval Medical Center

As many as 1,600 instructor and student positions could be lost at the San Diego Naval Medical Center, also known as Balboa Naval Hospital.

The Pentagon proposed moving some training for enlisted Navy medical personnel to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where all such training would take place for the military.

According to Navy spokeswoman Amy Rohlfs, the cuts would have no impact on patient care at the hospital.

"We will continue the wonderful services we have always had here," she said by telephone Friday.

San Diego Defense Finance and Accounting Service

The military proposed shuttering the 10-year-old San Diego branch of this office, which is dedicated to payroll and other military and contract civilian pay issues. Under the recommendations, the office would be consolidated at a base in Ohio, Colorado or Indiana.

Three military and 237 civilian jobs could be lost, according to a summary published on the Defense Department's Web site Friday.

Miramar Marine Corps Air Station

The Pentagon proposed moving Camp Pendleton's brig to Miramar, which would create the Southwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility.

The corrections centers at Edwards Air Force Base and Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, would also be consolidated at the Miramar center, adding as many as 87 military positions and 34 civilian jobs to the Miramar roster.

In another proposed shuffle, Miramar could lose 40-some instructor pilots and support personnel who would be transferred to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where the military proposes establishing its Joint Strike Fighter training site.

The Joint Strike Fighter is the next generation fighter/bomber that will be used by the Navy, Marines and Air Force.

Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base

Camp Pendleton stands to lose its brig to nearby Miramar, where Pentagon planners have proposed establishing a regional military corrections facility.

The base could lose a net of 144 positions in this and other small adjustments proposed Friday.

While base officials refused to comment on how the BRAC process could effect the base and its operations, no proposals offered by the Defense Department Friday seemed aimed at changing the way Camp Pendleton operates.

March Air Reserve Base

While Pentagon officials said this Moreno Valley base is the most valuable of the 16 Air Reserve bases in the country, it could be made more efficient by consolidating it from two commands into a single command.

The proposal would transfer the base's Air National Guard operations to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, McGhee-Tyson National Guard Base in Tennessee, and Pease National Guard Base in New Hampshire.

Some 70 military and 40 civilian positions could be lost.

San Diego Naval Station

The Pentagon plans to move at least 10 mine sweeper ships to the San Diego Naval Station if it closes the Ingleside Naval Station near Corpus Christi, Texas.

According to a summary issued by the Defense Department Friday, the move would account for most of the estimated 1,084 military posts, and 86 civilian jobs expected to added to the San Diego Naval Station under the closure and realignment plan.

Coronado Naval Base and North Island Naval Air Station

Numerous changes of small maintenance, storage and logistics departments to and from North Island Naval Air Station would contribute to an overall loss of 71 military posts and 389 civilian jobs at North Island according to the Defense Department's proposal.

Some of the air wing maintenance operations would be consolidated into a Southwest Fleet Readiness Center with headquarters at North Island, and satellite offices at Pendleton, Miramar, Yuma and Point Mugu.

The North Island Naval Air Depot will also take on some of the current supply, storage and distribution operations for lubricants and other maintenance products that are now done at San Diego Naval Station.

Barstow Marine Corps Logistics Base

Perhaps some good news for Marine operations at Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms is that the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow could shed many of its specialty functions, including some optics and weapons repair operations, which would increase space and personnel devoted to refurbishing Humvees, Amphibious Assault Vehicles and other vehicles for Marine Units returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Barstow is the only West Coast facility that completely overhauls Marines vehicles and weapons that require more work than can be done at the unit level or local motorpools.

The Pentagon said the consolidation could add to the West Coast Marines' ability to rapidly ramp up or recover from military operations.

The communities around Barstow could lose as many as 140 military and 330 civilian jobs, however.

Point Loma Naval Submarine Base

If the Navy's mine warfare operations, including 10 mine-hunting ships, are moved to San Diego Naval Station, then the Point Loma Naval Base would be the new home of the commander of the Mine Warfare Command and his staff, as well as the commander of the Mobile Mine Assembly Group.

The new commands would come from the mine warfare base at Ingleside, Texas, from which ships could be relocated to San Diego.

A new Space Warfare Systems Command, mostly devoted to research and development, is also proposed for the Point Loma base.

After accounting for personnel that could be lost by consolidating many small specialty departments, Point Loma could still add about 300 military positions and nine civilian positions to its rolls if the BRAC commission follows the Pentagon's recommendations for closing Ingleside.

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at (760) 725-5442 or dmortenson@nctimes.com.