The invention provides a target acquisition system and method for an unmanned carrier photoelectric system. Time of exposure moment of each frame of video image is annotated by employing GPS or Beidou clock data; exposure time of video image of a target and exposure time of a current frame of video image observed by an operator are acquired; a function between a GPS or Beidou clock and the movement velocity of the photoelectric system is established; movement tracks of the photoelectric system are recorded; a movement angle of a line of sight in the exposure time difference of two frames of video images is calculated; and the location of the target in the current frame of video image is calculated according to the location coordinate of the target in the video image of the target observed by the user. The photoelectric system is enabled to acquire the target accurately and rapidly.