Every year, the Baird Defense & Government Conference is awash in familiar faces and important figures in the government contracting industry. It's among the highest concentrations of Wash100 Award winners as you'll see in one place -- and one such recipient is Ultra Intelligence & Communications CEO Jon Rucker, who we interviewed on the sidelines of last year's event to go deeper on some of the company's projects that he detailed in a presentation.

This year, late last month, we went one step further and invited Rucker to speak with us on camera for several minutes about the initiatives he's most excited about at Ultra I&C, where he sees the company going in five years and his highlights from this year's Baird conference. Rucker detailed the "incredible innovation and growth trajectory" the company has traversed since he joined two years ago.

Tech Initiatives at Ultra I&C

Among several cutting-edge endeavors, he highlighted the ADSI offering, debuted this year, which is a "universal translator for command and control systems," and received a continuous authority to operate, or ATO, designation.

He also talked us through the company's contribution to the troposcatter market, which it has nascent involvement in but is hoping to platform over the next few years.

"We would like to move from being a new entrant in the tropo market to being a primary player," Rucker shared.