SAU Tech's designation as Arkansas's Center of Excellence for Aerospace Defense Manufacturing is a designation that is in line with the creation of the College from the very beginning in 1968. The College is located in the Highland Industrial Park, formerly a naval ammunition depot - Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot. Closed by the Navy after World War II, Brown and Root Corporation, out of Houston, TX, purchased the buildings and land to sell off anything of value and parcel the land for sale. After intervention by an Arkansas State Senator, the company decided to create an industrial park and to donate buildings that once housed the military personnel to start a vocational-technical school to train employees for the industry that would occupy the Park. Over 50 years have passed, and the Highland Industrial Park and SAU Tech are an essential piece of the Arkansas economy. 

SAU Tech provides training and graduates for the operations of some of the largest aerospace defense contractors in the world- Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, General Dynamics, Spectra Technologies, Armtec Defense Technologies, and others.

Today, SAU Tech provides workforce training to the Park partners and career technical and transfer degrees for students seeking certifications or degrees. SAU Tech's designation as a Center of Excellence is due to the institution's hyper-focus on providing industry-relevant training for the Park's aerospace defense industries. SAU Tech offers programs tailored to the sectors in its for-credit and non-credit programs.