Because the traditional error distribution methods have low efficiency,they are difficult to meet the requirement of high accuracy distribution. To solve this problem,the error distribution method based on artificial fish-swarm algorithm (ASFA) is proposed. Firstly,on the basis of the airborne electro-optical platform characteristics,a target detection model from geodetic coordinate system to the camera sensor axis coordinate system was established by using linear coordinate transformation. The main factors affecting accuracy were discussed,and the main error sources of distributed target detection were determined. The error model of target detection was established based on Mont Carlo method. Then,the error distribution problem was translated into an unconstrained optimization problem. ASFA was used to find the optimal distribution solution of error sources to meet the requirement of detection error. Finally,the simulation calculation was carried out. The results show that the proposed error distribution method has higher accuracy and efficiency than the traditional error distribution methods.