That's pretty much getting close to complete nonsense.
Yes, NOE's are easy to stop - IF you have enough pilots available stitting in the tower all the time, ready to up at a moment's notice. Unfortunately most players are actually playing.. so when a 20+ NOE is hitting a field, it's most of the time simply pure luck if you can muster enough defenders to repel them, unless it's a complete noob mission.
Remember, it takes only 2.5 minutes from edge of radar circle to base at 300mph.
There are several planes in the set that could get to 5k or higher and up in speed in that amount of time.
Listen, I'm not saying NOE missions are good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable, I'm just saying I feel like people saying "undefendable" is kind of an exaggeration. I'm more-or-less playing the devil's advocate here trying to see if there is an underlying issue that everyone is trying to get at.
I feel like all the people that complain about someone bombing a hanger and ruining a furball and that NOE's are awful, are also the same people that say scores don't matter and the point of the game is to dogfight anyway. In other words, I'm kind of confused why these people are worried about losing bases to an NOE mission if they have a sweet dogfight elsewhere and those who toolshed are busy with said NOE mission. It seems they are more worried about what other people are doing rather than just playing the game how they like.
Seriously, the flame messages don't get anything done. They just create tireless threads about nonesense and arguments that will never be resolved by us. I'm sure that if HiTech finds a system to help the problems he sees with gameplay, they will be implemented. He clearly sees that there is a problem, let it rest.