Officer having to fabricate utility vehicle with new soldier? (10)
I believe the answer is:
lieutenant
'officer' is the definition.
(lieutenant is a kind of officer)
'utility vehicle with new soldier?' is the wordplay.
'utility' becomes 'lie' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'vehicle' becomes 'ute' (Australian abbreviation for utility vehicle).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'soldier?' becomes 'ant' (soldier ant is a type of ant).
'lie'+'ute'+'n'+'ant'='LIEUTENANT'
'having to fabricate' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lieutenant that I've seen before include "Deputy" , "Assistant" , "Army rank" , "Commissioned officer" , "Army officer" .)