Nowadays gets soldiers to improve (5)
I believe the answer is:
amend
'improve' is the definition.
(I know that improve can be written as amend)
'nowadays gets soldiers' is the wordplay.
'nowadays' becomes 'AD' (AD, Anno Domini, as opposed to BC, Before Christ).
'gets' means one lot of letters goes inside another (gets can mean captures or absorbs).
'soldiers' becomes 'men' (men can mean a group of soldiers).
'ad' going around 'men' is 'AMEND'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for amend that I've seen before include "Correct or alter to improve" , "Modify - edit" , "Rectify" , "Ameliorate" , "Corrct error, make a minor aleration" .)