In recent years, domestic airports have accelerated the construction of field surveillance radar. At present, there are two main forms of transmission signals of field surveillance radar, one is pulse signal, the other is continuous wave linear frequency modulation signal (LFMCW signal). Due to the different forms of transmission signals, the ranging principles of the two field surveillance radars are different. Combined with Indra field surveillance radar, this paper analyzes the characteristics and ranging principle of continuous wave linear frequency modulation signal, and explains the source of ranging error from three aspects.