Bring in soldier, perhaps, and material (9)
I believe the answer is:
important
'material' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'bring in soldier perhaps' is the wordplay.
'bring in' becomes 'import' (I've seen this before).
'soldier perhaps' becomes 'ant' (soldier is a type of ant).
'import'+'ant'='IMPORTANT'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for important that I've seen before include "Significant, valuable" , "influential" , "essence" , "Leading" , "It's vital" .)