In order to solve the problem of node screen with high precision and high real-time in the hybrid cooperative location of UAV swarm, an efficient node screen algorithm was proposed. The algorithm used the variance of positioning as the basis for evaluating positioning accuracy and used the recursive relationship between the variance of positioning caused by the removal of one node to select the specified number of nodes for positioning calculation. At the same time, the algorithm added an operation volume adjustment factor to solve the problem of large computation volume and poor real-time performance of traditional node selection algorithms in the case of a large number of nodes. Through simulation experiment, the variance and operation time consumption obtained by the algorithm are compared with the corresponding results of other optimization methods. The experimental results show that the algorithm greatly reduces the amount of calculation while ensuring the positioning accuracy, and has good real-time performance and feasibility.