<p>Aluminum matrix composites (AMCs) are commonly used as lightweight structural materials in aviation, marine and automobile industries as they offer high specific strength, good thermal properties and excellent formability. However, the susceptibility to wear and corrosion limits their performance in extreme working conditions. A multi-pass friction stir processing (FSP) is performed to fabricate ceria-stabilized zirconia (CSZ)-reinforced AA6061-T6 composite to overcome these challenges. The present work aims to study the effect of the number of passes during FSP and post-fabrication solution heat treatment on the microhardness and corrosion performance of the fabricated AMCs. The corrosion performance was evaluated using an electrochemical method, viz. potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) test in 3.5% NaCl salt solution. The PDP test result exhibited a reduction in corrosion rate (CR) by one order of magnitude due to the solution heat treatment. The triple-pass solution heat-treated sample exhibited the best mechanical and corrosion performance with an average microhardness of 70.45 ± 2.66 HV and a corrosion rate of 0.0021&#xa0;mm/year. The CSZ-reinforced AMCs can be used for marine environments as one of the potential materials where pitting corrosion is predominant.</p> Graphical abstract