Jan Peifer, point of contact for harbour protection and maritime unmanned/uncrewed systems at the Bundeswehr Technical Center for German Navy, obtained a Diploma in the field of communications engineering at the University of Kiel in 2006. His research and technology journey started in the field of digital communications for acoustics in shallow water, followed by touching the field of programming mapping algorithms for obstacle avoidance at WTD 71 in Eckernfoerde. After a brief excursion into the procurement office in Koblenz as project manager for lightweight torpedoes (LWT), he stepped back to WTD 71, taking on a dual role. He was responsible for the technical support of German LWT. And as program
manager for the German anti torpedo torpedo (att) program he completed the research activities which currently leads to a PESCO project for qualifying and certifying an att.

Since 2022 he serves as project leader of the German procurement project Harbour Protection and as branch head at WTD 71 to which the newly founded competence center for maritime unmanned/uncrewed systems belongs. In these roles and as head of delegation for the NATO Joint Capability Group for maritime unmanned systems he works on the mid-term goal to merge the technologies of unmanned platforms, autonomy and protection against asymmetric warfare (needed for harbour protection) to offer complex functional chains for the operational use of maritime unmanned systems to the Navy.