Hill Country Defense Alliance launches rural innovation network to keep defense contracts in the Hill Country

Three things converged to create the Hill Country Defense Alliance: a university that spent 20 years building career-focused programs in engineering, aviation, and nursing; a 170-employee defense manufacturer that built a laboratory on that university’s campus; and a flood that exposed the critical need for unmanned aerial search and rescue.

Tim Summerlin and Kristin Hedger appeared Monday on Lead Live to lay out what the organization is building and why it matters to Kerrville’s economic future.

The manufacturer — KMM, or Kerrville Mountain Manufacturing — partnered with Schreiner University to create an on-campus engineering lab, directly connecting private industry and higher education in a working defense partnership. The July 4, 2025, flood, which killed 28 people at Camp Mystic, highlighted how urgently rural communities need drone and unmanned aerial capabilities for search and rescue — and how few of those contracts currently flow to heartland companies.

“Defense is kind of our backbone in many ways,” Summerlin said.

HCDA’s core mission is helping small-to-medium Hill Country businesses compete for Pentagon contracts and aerospace and defense subcontracts, keeping high-paying defense work and jobs in rural communities rather than ceding them entirely to large coastal contractors.

The organization is now launching FAWN — the Future Asymmetric Warfare Network — in partnership with Schreiner University. Modeled loosely on Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and Boeing’s Phantom Works innovation divisions, FAWN aims to bring rapid, asymmetric innovation to a rural Hill Country setting. Current partners include Little Raw Dynamics, a Blanco-based cybersecurity firm advising foreign governments on hijacking threat vectors.

“We’re hoping to kind of replicate in a humble way the rural opportunity to do what Skunk Works does,” Summerlin said.

The alliance is actively recruiting local companies, public enterprises, and nonprofits whose work intersects with public safety, infrastructure, or defense.

Contact Tim Summerlin: (830) 377-1186. HCDA is accessible through the Schreiner University website.