Navy getting new cut in fuel, greater than any previous? (9)
I believe the answer is:
nonpareil
'greater than any previous?' is the definition.
(nonpareil means having no equal)
'navy getting new cut in fuel' is the wordplay.
'navy' becomes 'N' (common abbreviation eg in RN Royal Navy).
'getting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'cut in' becomes 'pare' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'fuel' becomes 'oil' (oil is a type of fuel).
'n'+'pare'='npare'
'npare' inserted within 'oil' is 'onpareil'.
'n'+'onpareil'='NONPAREIL'
(Other definitions for nonpareil that I've seen before include "unmatched!" , "like none other" , "Peerless" , "having no match" , "Super model" .)