t was on the opening stage of the Marrakech Air Show, on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, that Mohammed VI Polytechnic University made official the consortium agreement of the Africa Center of Manufacturing Excellence (ACME), its advanced manufacturing research center at Nouaceur. Around the table, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the National Defense Administration and OCP Group join Boeing, the center’s co-founder, together with Airbus, Safran Nacelles, CETIM and Lockheed Martin, which comes in as a founding member. The agreement sets the consortium’s rules on governance, funding and intellectual property, and provides for tiered membership so that other organizations can join.
Announced in October 2024 at the same show, with Boeing as its first partner, ACME now gains a shared framework: pooled equipment, coordinated research programs and training delivered through an ACME Academy. Its work will cover advanced materials, additive manufacturing, machining, composites, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, metrology and non-destructive testing, project by project, in answer to manufacturers’ needs. No funding figure or timetable was disclosed. The wager is no small one: to move Morocco’s aerospace industry from assembly to design, and it is at Nouaceur that this ambition will be tested.
Photo: Boeing Middle East (@BoeingMidEast). The signing of the ACME consortium agreement on October 7, 2026, at the Marrakech Air Show.
Lockheed Martin - At @MAS_Airshow_ma, we signed an agreement to join the Africa Center of Manufacturing Excellence (ACME) at @UM6P_officiel as a founding member
Boeing - Industrial excellence, made in Morocco
Aeronautique.ma - Marrakech Airshow 2026 : l’ACME officialise son consortium avec Boeing, Airbus et les industriels partenaires
Aujourd’hui le Maroc - A travers le lancement de l’Africa Center of Manufacturing Excellence : L’UM6P fédère les grands acteurs de l’industrie aéronautique
