Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Public Safety Office (PSO) has awarded $149 million to Texas Tech University (TTU) to fund the construction of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) testing facility, along with a series of cybersecurity enhancements at the Lubbock-based campus. Abbott announced the grant as part of the state’s ongoing effort to harden critical systems against foreign threats, according to the PSO release.
The move comes less than a year after Abbott signed House Bill 150 (HB 150) into law in June 2025, creating the Texas Cyber Command—described as the largest state-based cybersecurity department in the country.
That initiative, headquartered at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), received $135 million in state funding. According to officials, it was designed to protect state and local government systems from cyberattacks, coordinate rapid response efforts and set a national benchmark for cybersecurity operations.
Abbott referenced the Cyber Command when announcing the Texas Tech grant, casting the $149 million as the next phase of a broader strategy to make Texas a national leader in cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection. Together, the two initiatives represent a combined $284 million state investment in the space.
While the Cyber Command centers on defending government networks and responding to active digital threats, the Texas Tech investment is focused on the physical infrastructure side, testing how systems like the electric grid and military assets withstand electromagnetic pulse attacks and other emerging vulnerabilities.
The grant will also fund expanded research into weaknesses across essential infrastructure systems, from water utilities to communications networks. It includes a workforce training component as well, intended to build a pipeline of skilled professionals in cybersecurity and infrastructure protection.
To carry out the work, Texas Tech will partner with multiple branches of the U.S. military, including the Army, Air Force and Navy, as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and private industry partners. The collaborative approach mirrors the model used by the Texas Cyber Command, which operates alongside the Sixteenth Air Force, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Secret Service and DHS out of San Antonio.
The EMP testing facility and cybersecurity upgrades will be based at the Reese National Security Complex in Lubbock, where Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the university’s existing research footprint laid the groundwork for the investment. Neither the governor’s office nor Texas Tech have released a timeline for the facility’s completion or a detailed breakdown of how the $149 million will be allocated between the EMP testing site and cybersecurity infrastructure upgrades.
Photo by USDA NRCS Texas, Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons
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