No soldiers as standard (4)
I believe the answer is:
norm
'standard' is the definition.
(norm is a kind of standard)
'no soldiers' is the wordplay.
'soldiers' becomes 'rm' (Royal Marines).
'no'+'rm'='NORM'
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for norm that I've seen before include "Mean" , "Average level of performance" , "Bacterium, virus, etc" , "Expected standard" , "Accepted standard of behaviour" .)