Aluminum-based metal-matrix composites (MMCs) reinforced with ceramic particulates exhibit high strength and elastic modulus, excellent wear resistance, near-isotropic and good high-temperature mechanical properties. [1][2][3][4] They have been used as structural materials in the automotive, aerospace and transportation industries. They are also very attractive for use as impellers and agitators in marine environments. [5] Poor corrosion resistance is a key issue for using these structural materials in marine environments. Pitting corrosion often occurs in ceramic particulate reinforced Al-based MMCs. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Pitting is more serious for Al-based MMCs compared to unreinforced alloys. Corrosion resistance of Al-based composites is influenced by several factors such as processing conditions, microstructure, chemical composition and heat treatment, size and volume fraction of the reinforcing ceramic particulates, chloride content of the environment, etc. The pits are commonly initiated at the flaws or heterogeneities in the passive film due to the presence of ceramic particulates and intermetallic precipitates in the MMCs. Corrosion attacks are known to occur preferentially in the vicinity of reinforcing particles or the reinforcementmatrix interface. [13,14] In addition, ceramic reinforcements also enhance precipitation of the intermetallics, promoting more pit nucleation in the composites. [8,9] For conventional Al-based MMCs fabricated via powder metallurgy route, ceramic particulates are prepared separately prior to their incorporation into aluminum matrix. Therefore, the size of reinforcements depends greatly on the initial powder diameter, typically in the order of several to tens of micrometers. Large ex-situ ceramic particles often act as stress concentrators during mechanical loading, leading to premature failure of composites. Moreover, fractured ceramic particles also serve as pit nucleation sites for the MMCs immersed in chloride containing solutions. [10] Therefore, many efforts have been directed towards the in-situ formation of ultrafine ceramic particles with uniform dispersion in metal matrices of the composites. Several techniques have been developed including exothermic dispersion (XD), reactive hot pressing (RHP), combustion-assisted cast, direct reaction synthesis, and liquid-solid or liquid-liquid reaction. [17][18][19][20][21] Among these, RHP process is attractive due to their simplicity and flexibility. Ultrafine ceramic particulates can be formed in-situ by the exothermic reaction between the element constituents of composites under hot pressing conditions. [1,19] The in-situ formed ceramic particulates exhibit thermodynamic compatibility with aluminum. The reinforcement-matrix interfaces are clean, resulting in a stronger particle-matrix bonding. The structure and mechanical behavior of Al-based MMCs reinforced with in-situ ceramic particulates are well established. [1,[18][19][20][21] However, there is no information available in the literature concerning t...