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Income Taxes (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2013
Dec. 31, 2012
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]      
Deferred tax asset amount related to accumulated other comprehensive income $ 1,800,000,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOtherComprehensiveLoss $ 1,200,000,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOtherComprehensiveLoss  
Investment of U.S. government accounts receivable in the CCF 100,000,000gd_InvestmentOfUsGovernmentAccountsReceivableInCcf 459,000,000gd_InvestmentOfUsGovernmentAccountsReceivableInCcf  
Net operating and capital loss carryforwards 1,200,000,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOperatingLossCarryforwards    
Tax credit carryforwards 215,000,000us-gaap_TaxCreditCarryforwardAmount    
Earnings (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes included foreign income 507,000,000us-gaap_IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesForeign 361,000,000us-gaap_IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesForeign (215,000,000)us-gaap_IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesForeign
Earnings from non-U.S. subsidiaries not remitted to the United States 1,900,000,000us-gaap_UndistributedEarningsOfForeignSubsidiaries    
Statutory federal income tax rate 35.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateReconciliationAtFederalStatutoryIncomeTaxRate 35.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateReconciliationAtFederalStatutoryIncomeTaxRate 35.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateReconciliationAtFederalStatutoryIncomeTaxRate
Possible chance of tax position sustainable, percentage 50.00%gd_PossibleChanceOfTaxPositionSustainablePercentage    
Tax positions for which it is reasonably possible that the unrecognized tax benefits will significantly increase or decrease   $ 0us-gaap_SignificantChangeInUnrecognizedTaxBenefitsIsReasonablyPossibleAmountOfUnrecordedBenefit