Armada has no time to escape (4)
I believe the answer is:
flee
'escape' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'armada has no time' is the wordplay.
'armada' becomes 'fleet' (I've seen this before).
'has no' is a deletion indicator.
'time' becomes 't'.
'fleet' with 't' taken away is 'FLEE'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for flee that I've seen before include "retreat" , "Take flight" , "Cut and run" , "Run quickly away" , "Maybe escape" .)