Target detection is a hot research topic in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image, and several methods of SAR image target detection are comprehensively discussed in this paper. By sorting out and summarizing the traditional method SAR image target detection and SAR image target detection based on deep learning, the problems of deep learning in SAR image ship detection in complex background are verified from experimental aspects. The advantages and disadvantages of current SAR image target detection algorithms are analyzed, and the urgent problems of SAR image target detection are clarified.