Thanks for the recorrect. However, I've been told that the Aussie Navy has the good reputation for its defend against any foreigners whose enter the Aussie water territory and most advanced techologies in the Pacific Ocean.
Australia has a small Navy as our population is only 20 million but it has to protect more coastline than the continental USA. Every 2 years Australia participates in RIMPAC with the US and other invited Navies (eg Canada) in exercises off Hawaii and has earned a good reputation in that our ships and subs frequently get past US defences and successfully "sink" its American targets. Although in a real war, if the US were the real enemy of Australia, no doubt the US Navy would overwhelm the RAN in shear size and fire-power.
About the aircraft carriers, Australia will be getting two Canberra Class LHD's that although we wont call them aircraft carriers, in size they will be bigger than our former aircraft carriers HMA Ships MELBOURNE and SYDNEY.
Displacement 30,700 tons
length 231 metres or 757 feet
will have 24 helo's and carry 1,000 troops in addition to its 250 complement.
It would be possible to arm them with fixed wing aircraft.
Our last aircraft carrier HMAS MELBOURNE (decommissioned in 1982) was smaller than these Canberra Class LHD's due in 2012 (Aircraft carrier HMAS SYDNEY was even smaller and was decommissioned 1973).
HMAS MELBOURNE with USS MIDWAY in line astern
From information, and personal experience at multiple international Navy exercises I would list these as the top five:
1. USA
2. UK
3. India
4. Russia
5. Australia
Trust me China is not in the game although I can see her reaching # 2 in five - seven years (a lot of their ships' external hardware and technologies are fake). France has a stong Navy but not a great performer. Russian Navy is declining but India is surprisingly (to me anyway) very impressive.