Capital Lease Future Minimum Capital Lease Payments (Details) $ in Thousands	Mar. 31, 2018 USD ($)
Lessee, Lease, Description [Line Items]
Lessee, Capital Lease, Interest Rate	(1.53%)
Remainder of 2018	$ 468
2019	624
2020	624
2021	624
2022	624
2023	45
Capital Leases, Future Minimum Payments Due	3,009
Capital Leases, Future Minimum Payments, Interest Included in Payments	(47)
Capital Leases, Future Minimum Payments, Present Value of Net Minimum Payments	2,962
Accrued Liabilities [Member]
Lessee, Lease, Description [Line Items]
Capital Leases, Future Minimum Payments, Present Value of Net Minimum Payments	562
Other Noncurrent Liabilities [Member]
Lessee, Lease, Description [Line Items]
Capital Leases, Future Minimum Payments, Present Value of Net Minimum Payments	$ 2,400

Discount rate used by lessee to determine present value of capital lease payments.

No definition available.

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Namespace Prefix:	kvhi_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of minimum lease payments for capital leases.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 30
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84164817&loc=d3e45280-112737

+ Details

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Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of minimum lease payments for capital leases due in the next fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount of minimum lease payments for capital leases due in the fifth fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount of minimum lease payments for capital leases due in the fourth fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount of minimum lease payments for capital leases due in the third fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount of minimum lease payments for capital leases due in the second fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount necessary to reduce net minimum lease payments to present value for capital leases.

+ References

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
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Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Present value of minimum lease payments for capital leases net of executory costs, including amounts paid by the lessee to the lessor for insurance, maintenance and taxes.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount of minimum lease payments for capital leases due in the remainder of the fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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