A few points for all of the above: The planes spawn from the a group patrolling nearby, out of radar range most of the mission, but close enough to send a "response" from the player's Status Update. You do need an "enemy" though, and a SearchLight does not qualify as such, even though it might be "Japanese" and you're "American". A ship is the best "enemy" target. I then attack the ship so that it does not shoot back at me when I want to be on the surface and observe the lights on my sub, and then when they follow the attacking airplanes, which since the ship is already sunk, will then attack "secondary" targets such as the SearchLights... This is basically Stock game action.

TMO_LightsCameraAction
Test SingleMission