Selling weapons abroad is a top priority for the government, Philip Hammond, the UK defence secretary, made clear on Tuesday, praising what he called a "fabulous show" displaying "fantastic kit".

It was the opening day of London Docklands' biennial arms bazaar, the biggest so far with 40 countries, including Russia and Israel, having their own national pavilions, and as many as 1,500 companies offering their wares.

Official guests at the arms show include the governments of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya – countries that need to build up their armed forces after recent conflicts in which Britain has played its part – as well as such traditional arms trade allies as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Qatar and Algeria, two potentially lucrative markets and relatively new allies in the fight against jihadist extremism, have also been invited as official guests.

Hammond said that later this week he would chair a new "cross-Whitehall" committee on weapons exports. "We are not ashamed of promoting responsible defence exports," he added.

In a speech to an audience consisting largely of arms company executives, he seized the opportunity to bash the European commission in Brussels for proposing a common EU approach to weapons sales, a move he said he believed would stifle competition.

He praised arms companies for building clusters around universities. Their future lay in high-tech, heavily academic-linked, industrial technology, not in "high-volume metal bashing", he said.

Compared with previous years many more of the exhibitors in the huge ExCel centre are smaller, niche, high-tech companies. Yet in terms of floor space they are still dwarfed by such giants as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon (maker of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which would have been launched against Syrian targets had not politics intervened).

Another exhibitor with a strong presence is Elbit, the Israeli specialist in unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, and a joint venture partner, with Thales, in the Watchkeeper unmanned air system being developed for British forces.

A guide to unmanned vehicles, made available on Monday, had more than 300 pages with illustrations of about 1,000 different types of drone.

This year a security and special forces zone has been set up at ExCel, consisting mainly of companies offering kit for the fast-developing private security market, an outlet growing as fast as that for drones. Kit for sale includes a necktie with a hidden camera as well as equipment designed to protect communications from cyber-attacks.

Close to stands showing off modern lethal weapons is the medical and disaster relief zone. "They do the damage, then they come to us for help" is the refrain among exhibitors there.

Exhibitors include Amputees In Action, which advises and helps to train British troops. They act as a consultancy for emergency services as well the armed forces, and also provide amputee actors and stunt artists for the film and television industries. AIA proudly describes itself as the BBC's "preferred agent".

After the first of the 30,000 expected visitors completed their security checks, as tough as any at an airport (Campaign Against the Arms Trade has been demonstrating), Sir George Zambellas, the new first sea lord and head of the Royal Navy, gave a rousing speech as if to give a raison d'être, at least for the show's big hitters.

In an unashamed defence of his own service, and the Trident nuclear missile system, Zambellas said that by the beginning of the coming decade the navy would account for nearly half of Britain's entire defence procurement programme.

He added that Britain might be a small island, referring to the put-down made by one of Vladimir Putin's officials at the recent G20 meeting in Saint Petersburg, but the nation would have a "big footprint across the world".

The navy's two new large aircraft carriers – a project that was recently damned by MPs as a huge technical and commercial risk – would become national icons, he said.