With the increase of data volume and the rapid development of modern radar, more requirements are put forward for radar target detection technology. There are both advantages and limitations of classical radar detection methods. Innovative methods are urgently needed to improve the radar target detection performance under complex background and limited radar resources. The main purpose of this paper is to illustrate the implementation of sparse fractional Fourier transform (SFRFT), which is developed on the basis of sparse Fourier transform (SFT). Besides, the SFRFT algorithm is applied to radar signal processing and a SFRFT-based fast and high resolution detection method is proposed to improve the detection performance of radar maneuvering target. It is expected that the method can provide a new way for radar moving target detection.