Detecting small targets in UAV remote sensing images is challenging for traditional lightweight methods due to difficulty in feature extraction and high background interference. We propose LPS-YOLO, which improves small target feature extraction while reducing computational complexity. Replacing the Conv backbone with SPDConv to retain fine-grained features, introduces the SKAPP module for better feature fusion, and incorporates the E-BiFPN and OFTP structures to efficiently preserve and transfer backbone information. Evaluation on the VisDrone2019 dataset shows a 17.3% increase in mean Average Precision (mAP) and a 42.5% reduction in parameters compared to the baseline. Additional experiments on the DOTAv2 dataset demonstrate the model’s robustness, with a 14.5% improvement in F1 score and a 14.9% increase in mAP over YOLOv8-n. LPS-YOLO offers an effective solution for multi-target detection in UAVs.