This is not uncommon, airlines do it too.
It doesnt mean the plane is being "thrown away" its just being placed into storage.
generally, the parts that are prone to deterioration from long term storage - such as the engines - are removed from the aircraft and either "pickled" in lubricants meant to serve as preservatives or they are sent to various air bases to be used for either their parts or to be used when other aircraft are in need of new engines.
The airframe itself will sit in the "bone yard". Bone yard is an unfair term because it makes you think of an airplane grave yard or a place where old airplanes go to die, and while this is partly true, a good many of the planes in the bone yard are just waiting their turn to be needed in one capacity or another.
Places like Roswell, New Mexico, or Kingman, Arizona are used for aircraft bone yards because there is virtually zero humidity in these areas, and machines like airplanes can be left almost completely un-tended for very long periods of time without suffering from the various effects of disuse. these areas are also popular locations for large hangars which house the machinery necessary to repaint airliners in their new paint schemes. I have flown a number of large aircraft to Roswell for both purposes (painting and storage)
So in a way this is not wasteful pork barrel spending...
this is frugal.
If a major event required hundreds of aircraft to be reactivated it would simply be a matter of a few days maintenance, some leg stretching flights and sending them to their front line assignments.
Hope this cleared up the mud
