Part of drill used by soldiers to get range (5)
I believe the answer is:
orbit
'range' is the definition.
('orbit' can be a synonym of 'range')
'part of drill used by soldiers' is the wordplay.
'part of drill' becomes 'bit' ('bit' is part of 'drill').
'used by' says to put letters next to each other.
'soldiers' becomes 'or' (Other Rank**).
'bit' put after 'or' is 'ORBIT'.
'to get' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for orbit that I've seen before include "Sun's circulation" , "Path of a planet or satellite" , "Stellar path" , "Path through space" , "Path of planet around sun" .)