There are several differences between this class and her sister classes. A Soyuz class starship has larger cargo holds and shuttlebays. Instead of an upper photon torpedo pod mounted laterally between two megaphaser cannon pods or low-mounted twin megaphaser cannon pods, the ship is equipped with a combination pod design unique to its class. Two pods are mounted above and below the aft section between the two shuttlebays, and two similar pods are mounted port and starboard on the aft section. The pods between the shuttlebays are equipped with one phaser cannon apiece. The aft side pods each have three phaser cannons and two photon torpedo launchers. All of the pods have the interior of a large outboard sensor pod built into them. The interlinking of these systems was done to extend the reliability and effectiveness of the ship's tactical system. The forward section of the ship's hull is armed with six standard dual turret ECHO (Enhanced Collimation via Harmonic Oscillation) system phaser emitters. The last design upgrade is the presence of two shield grids that operate independently of each other. The second shield will activate automatically only in an extreme emergency and usually must be operated manually. This advent was probably one of the first steps on the path to the regenerative shielding used in the later Sovereign class exploratory cruiser.

The starships of this class were constructed at the Copernicus Ship Yards by the Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, Luna. The Soyuz class was authorized by the Starfleet Border Service and was specifically designed to patrol and keep Federation borders secure--with foremost attention paid to the Klingon and Romulan Neutral Zones and the border with the Tholian Assembly. If necessary, these ships can perform double duty as advance scouts and/or escorts during time of war.

The USS Bozeman (NCC-1941) is a Soyuz class starship commanded by Captain Morgan Bateson that vanished three weeks after leaving its home port at Starbase 12 to go on assignment. It was last reported near the Typhon Expanse in 2278. Unknown to Starfleet until 2368, the Bozeman was caught in a temporal causality loop for ninety years until the Galaxy class heavy cruiser USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) became trapped in the loop for awhile as well. The crew of the Enterprise eventually found a way out of the loop, and their disruptive action broke the Bozeman free. Once out of the loop, the Enterprise escorted the Bozeman back to Starbase 12. The captain and crew were debriefed, and the vessel was refitted and restored to active duty since the causality loop had only lasted for about one day of relative time.