Group of soldiers commanded to collect equipment (7)
I believe the answer is:
brigade
'group of soldiers' is the definition.
'commanded to collect equipment' is the wordplay.
'commanded' becomes 'bade' (past tense form of 'bid').
'to collect' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'equipment' becomes 'rig' (rig is a kind of equipment).
'bade' going around 'rig' is 'BRIGADE'.
(Other definitions for brigade that I've seen before include "Part of an army division" , "Rig a bed (anag)" , "Military group" , "Army unit" , "Set of troops" .)