A wood breakthrough meets defense demand
In the quiet town of Frederick, Maryland, InventWood has become a focal point for defense engineers and logistics experts. The company is manufacturing a re-engineered wood known as SUPERWOOD, which combines the strength of steel with the ease of working with wood. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has just selected InventWood for its Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative, a move that will fast-track SUPERWOOD into defense and dual-use applications.
The material is already drawing attention for its applications in force protection and radio frequency transparency. DARPA’s initiative is designed to turn this interest into real-world adoption by pairing InventWood’s material with the expertise of a new Embedded Entrepreneur. That person will be tasked with navigating defense-specific contracts and validating the material for military use.
Strength, fire resistance, and a domestic supply chain
What makes SUPERWOOD stand out is not just its strength — it outperforms steel in strength-to-weight — but also its fire and impact resistance. It can be produced entirely in the U.S., using local wood sources, and it maintains RF transparency, making it suitable for high-tech applications. The material was originally developed at the University of Maryland and has since been scaled with a mix of public and private support.
Jon Strimling, InventWood’s COO, said the company has seen increasing demand from defense stakeholders. “The interest is real,” he said. The Embedded Entrepreneur initiative will now put a commercialization expert in place to ensure that demand translates into contracts and projects.
The next phase: hiring a defense commercial expert
InventWood is now recruiting someone with a track record in defense acquisition and commercialization. Ideal candidates will have experience with prime contractors or system integrators and understand pathways such as Commercial Solutions Openings. They should also have a background in bringing disruptive technologies through the validation and deployment process.
The company operates out of an 89,000-square-foot facility in Frederick and has over 135 patents protecting its material platform. As interest builds, the military’s logistics and infrastructure teams are watching closely, eager to see how this wood innovation might change the battlefield — and the supply chain.