Hybrid optoelectronic joint transform correlator is a very effecitve tool to recognize a target, which has important application in military and industry field. However, in actual applications, under some situations, such as complex target background or insufficient contour information etc., the intensity of correlation peaks will be weak. Sometimes, the weak intensity of correlation peaks can not be recognized by joint transform correlator. Wavelet transform is adopted to process the joint target image. The principles of joint transform correlator and wavelet transform are given in this paper. As an actual example, a tank target is adopted to test the feasibility and effectiveness of this method. From computer simulation, we can get good experimental effect. After wavelet transform of joint target image, the intensity of correlation peaks has been increased obviously. Optical experiments confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of this method further. Amounts of experiments prove wavelet transform can extract the target contour effectively. Based on the principle of the proposed algorithm, the target recognizing rate can be increased to a higher level.