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Ally hacking into American radar, say (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

acronym

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'radar say' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.

'ally hacking into american' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'ally' could be 'crony' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'crony' is located in the answer.
'american' could be 'am' (abbreviation in some contexts) and 'am' is found within the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for acronym that I've seen before include "A word initially coined" , "NATO, for example" , "Perhaps nimby" , "Word formed from initial letters of other words." , "Nimby is one" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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