Underwater target detection plays an important role in modern warfare. With the development of remote sensing， detecting and identifying underwater targets through images is one of the key research directions. The article briefly introduces hydrodynamic wake and thermal wake. According to the classification of remote sensing images， the characteristics and algorithms of wake detection from optical images， synthetic aperture radar （SAR） images， and thermal infrared images are analyzed. The preliminary concept of future development is put forward， and the key technological directions that should be paid attention to are sorted out and summarized， so as to provide reference for the development of underwater target detection．