This may be old news but i found this interesting and would be a solution rather than none at all and i thought Airbus was part of the UK, or am i mistaken!
Not a "solution", only a "temporary fix". The problem is that the spars are still running out of life. Nothing you do short of replacing the spar will fix that. That is why the P-8 is being built, not because the US can't rebuild them. The P-3 is an EXCELLENT aircraft for its job and does it extremely well, but they can only be "life extended" so many times. Here in the US, L3 (formerly E-Systems) offers a similar rebuild for the P-3 that the Australians and Japanese have used for their P-3's in addition to the US Navy's aircraft. But we get back to the first issue - it still doesn't resolve the spar issue.
The UK's best bet to replace the Nimrod is still to buy the P-8 or another new system.
