English soldier's news about European war machine (6)
I believe the answer is:
engine
'war machine' is the definition.
'english soldier's news about european' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'soldier' becomes 'gi' (government issue or general issue).
'news' becomes 'nn' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'gi' placed within 'nn' is 'ngin'.
'e'+'ngin'+'e'='ENGINE'
(Other definitions for engine that I've seen before include "Machine with moving parts" , "Mechanical device as source of power, a driver" , "Machine that converts energy into motion" , "Power unit" , "search, maybe" .)