This paper presents a novel echo si

This paper presents a novel echo signal calculation model for the underwater laser detection of short-range targets. An underwater laser ranging process simulation model is established combined with the echo time identification method. The distance distribution of the underwater target laser range was simulated through time delay and peak detection methods. Simulation results show that the distance dispersion forms an approximately Gaussian distribution. The precision of the system as-assessed by time delay method is higher than the peak detection method. The system ranging accuracy decreases as target distance increases. Seawater simulation results are consistent with experimental underwater short-range goals determined in a target range experiment at sea. The small angle scattering approximation error increases when the target distance is far away — at a certain target distance, the simulation results do slightly deviate from the experimental results. The results presented here may provide a workable reference for the parameter design and ranging error correction of underwater near-range target laser detection systems.