Bravo — survives gales (6)
I believe the answer is:
blasts
'gales' is the definition.
'bravo survives' is the wordplay.
'bravo' becomes 'b' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'survives' becomes 'lasts' ('last' can be a synonym of 'survive').
'b'+'lasts'='BLASTS'
(Other definitions for blasts that I've seen before include "Explosions" , "Attacks vituperatively" , "curses" .)