They do throw things away. Eventually. More often they just stash it somewhere where it rots away. Some years ago some photographers did a series on what had happened to all that Soviet equipment in the new Russia. And they found it, acres and acres of mouldering jets and rusting T-72’s.
A lot of that is, I think, what gets reported as being in inventory, as in those “12,000” tanks in reserve. How many of those can still move? A tiny fraction I guess.
Some years ago some photographers did a series on what had happened to all that Soviet equipment in the new Russia.
***Interesting. Got a link?