Owing to the complex nonlinearities of the electric load simulator (ELS) for the gun control system (GCS), the surplus torque plays a great negative impact on the performance of the loading system. This paper proposes a variable-structure wavelet-neural-network (VSWNN) identification strategy based on adaptive differential evolution (ADE). First of all, a mathematical model is established based on the structure and the working principle of the ELS. Then an intelligent identification method is applied, where the wavelet function is chosen as the excitation function, which improves the generalization and approximation ability of the neural network. The ADE is used to optimize the parameters, which solves the difficulty of determining the structure of the WNN. In order to reduce the computation complexity and speed up the convergence of the identification system, the adaptive laws of the pitch adjusting rate (PAR), band width (BW) and variable numbers of neurons are proposed.Finally, a pseudo random multilevel signal and a linear frequency modulation signal are chosen as input signals for the hardware-in-the-loop simulation. The test results show that the proposed ADE-VSWNN algorithm has superior validity and practicability, especially when the identification algorithm is used in the working circumstances with different inertial torque. Further, the high precision and strong robustness of the identification algorithm are further verified.