One more time...there already is a way for potential defenders to organize a response. You see it every day in the MA when a base is successfully defended against an attack and don't use the typical vGuy scape goat boogieman to try and shore up your flagging point. I have been on the team that has successfully defended many bases from the vGuys and all that was needed was for the defenders to actually defend instead of complain how it's impossible to defend a base.
ack-ack
+1 to this. You call Alert # but everyone is doing their own thing.
I've been involved in taking back the lost field in the five minutes it took to re-de-ack the town and get an M-3 there.
Attackers took the field completely down, captured it, and landed as the "defenders" were arriving from the closest base. (Wasn't that also a complaint?)
I actually de-acked the town with a 262.

Well it also seems odd to me that a base can become fully operational for the captures as soon as ten guys with tommy-guns enter a room. I would view the "limbo state" as the time it takes for the boots on the ground to successfully convert the base, in that time air support would certainly be required to assist them.
The base doesn't become fully operational. The AAA comes up. That's it.
Destroyed hangers are still on the same timer. Destroyed ords, troops, and dar don't pop back up. Even the town is still down. All except for the ack.
Kill the ack.
wrongway