Abstract: The present invention provides a ship self-defense missile (SSDM) weapon system for launching a plurality of light weight missiles from an existing vertical tube launch infrastructure. The system for vertically launching missiles from a ship comprises a plurality of tiers having a top tier and a bottom tier in which tier supports a plurality of missiles. The tiers are set into a launch canister having an interior wall to form a vertical stack in the launch canister. A launch means is used for selectively launching at least one of the plurality of missiles from the top tier. A means for ejecting ejects the top tier is depleted of missiles. A vertical movement means raises and lowers the tiers within the launch tube and the vertical movement means raises next tier in the vertical stack into a position to launch.