By establishing the envelope model of the spectral radiation of target and the dynamic characteristic model of target attitude angle, the relationship between the target maneuvering mode and the changing rate of the attitude angle is analyzed. The model of response signal for infrared radiation is established and the key factors influencing the signal features are theoretically analyzed. The results show that the exponential terms and the high order power terms of spatial distance are the main factors which influence the overall trend of amplitude change of infrared radiation signal, and the changing rate of the target attitude angle has a significant effect on the local features of the infrared radiation response signals. The time derivative of the infrared radiation response signals is proportional to the changing rate of the target attitude angle. Three typical target maneuvering modes are chosen to perform simulation experiments, and the results show that the target infrared radiation response characteristic signals are significantly different under different maneuvering modes, which provides a feasibility to identify the target maneuvering modes and has great significance to the target maneuver tracking, maneuvering detection and situation evaluation.