The objective of this work is to investigate the rotary friction welding of AA1100 aluminum alloy with mild steel, and to optimize the welding parameters of these dissimilar materials, such as friction pressure/time, forging pressure/time and rotational speed. The optimization of the welding parameters was deduced by applying Response Surface Methodology (RSM). An empirical relationship was also applied to predict the welding parameters. Tensile test and micro-hardness measurements were used to determine the mechanical properties of the welded joints. Some joints were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in order to investigate the formation of intermetallic compound (IMC) layer at the weld interface. Experimentally, the tensile strength of the weld increases with increasing the forging pressure/time, while the low level of forging pressure/time allows the formation of an IMC layer which reduces the tensile strength of the weld.