"Sir? We've been having trouble getting more ships into orbit after our one successful launch... it seems that as soon as the pilots hit any obstacle they shut off the engines and crash. No, sir, they only had minor damage. Yes, they have the new armoured hull available, but they seem to be requesting the very first prototype instead... they say they like its 'smaller profile'."
Strangely, the next wave counter doesn't seem to have anything to do with the speed of play. At 1x, waves often overlap but at 3x there is often huge gaps between them. That counter-intuitively makes this game much easier the faster its running.