take a look at the starbase defense modules

 <SpecializationType>Generic</SpecializationType>

should be what your looking for

My goal is to automate the starbase ordering modules I've done most of them with the exception of a few modules I don't want automated 

I would like to add the starbase extension modules as automatic orders however they are a generic specialization so I would upgrade from generic ring module but I'm not sure if that's a valid module or if that goes away if I upgrade to say military or economic ring modules

im actually just not sure if i can claim the generic ring module as an upgrades from or not

as for saving time

there are at least 12 different military branches of upgrades on a military starbase if i build a military starbase i want all of them that i have researched.
there are at least 9 different military branches of upgrades on a generic starbase if i build starbase defenses on a starbase i want all of them

i often have over 100 military starbases just near my home system
and i usuaully use them to build a highway starting from near the centre of the map and reaching out to all the corners
that highway would hold 2500 starbases just on the main paths each one requireing more then 22 visits each (by the player) with the existing setup 

thats almost 55000 visits where all im doing is saying yes build this. and thats only about half of my starbases. dont forget the actual setting up of the starbase in the firstplace. yes i go a little overboard with starbases 

ive so far managed to set the 12 military on a military starbase to auto upgrade (i hope, need to actually test it)
and managed to set 7 of the military modules on a generic tree which all have a prereq of starbase defenses to auto upgrade (ive tested that much)

my main issue was that when i wrote this post i was out on the road and diddent have time to test if setting a geneirc ring module as upgrades from would work and hoping someone knew the answer before i came back however if it does not work i will use your idea of creating a new placeholder upgrade which i can do as soon as i build the starbase and will then order the other 2 range extension modules as soon as they become available

actually the military ring stays

<upgradesfrom> does not mean that    A becomes B  but rather if you have A it will order B

I'll test it again haven't had time to look at it further however I'm pretty sure starbase modules remain even if you "upgrade" then

my first test only had two modules auto upgrade from the starbase defense module however they both upgraded as expected. 

On the other hand they were both upgraded on the same turn so at the time they would have both been valid as having the starbase defense module in place

now to counter it again all the weapon upgrades on the generic starbase are already required to have basic starbase defenses but nothing more 

if as you say the basic one is destroyed when the advanced one is built then i would no longer be able to build any weapon modules according to the vanilla game

so far all modules work ive tested twice more once with automatic ordering set to 10 modules and the game ordered and built everything i set to automatic
once with automatic ordering set to 2 modules while slower it fully upgraded the starbase defense line and phasor line before starting the kinetic weapon line and the missile line.

at this point my mod works pretty much exactly as intended with the exception of setting up automatic ordering for the range extension line which i will play with next time i get a few minutes  

This should not work at all, and in a small way it doesn't. I have a feeling starbase auto-upgrading broke a whole lot behind the scenes to make this happen at all.

EDIT: I only have one idea about how this can possibly work. Your modules are defined as both requiring and upgrading the defense system modules. This might be tricking the game into having the automation order them, but the prereq also prevents the defense module from being replaced once the module finishes building. This is a bug, but I like it.

A) the tag is old and necessary for starbases to work at all. Unless they hard-coded upgrades(which is obviously false, because my custom modules still work) it still replaces the old module.

B.) again, this cannot be the case, because the "level" doesn't exist and so cannot be known by the game.

In any case, I just tested it. Removing the prereq of the system defense module breaks the automation - the module will replace, as a normal upgrade, the system defense module. Basically my idea was correct in the general idea. One thing which is sort-of correct - starbase modules inherit their parent names, which is why the generic starbase defenses still work as prereqs after upgrading. If you do it ANY other way than what you did, it breaks in various ways. Modules can be replaced by a different line and can't be rebuilt, side branches can't be made, etc.

But going back to your original question, there is no generic ring. If you want to run the extended range and sensor modules automatically, branch one group off of the other, or create a module to branch them both off of.