Status of Hittite

What is the current view of the status of Hittite within IE?
The question has arisen on another list, and I hope this list can provide an
authoritative answer.

Is it a separate branch, coordinate with all other IE (a "sister" of
IE)--the "Indo-Hittite" hypothesis, which seems not to be mentioned much
these days?

Or is it simply another branch, coordinate with Germanic, Italic,
Indo-Iranian et al., hence merely another "daughter" language?

As a side issue, can the other Anatolian IE languages, attested so much
later than Hittite, be viewed as descendants of Hittite, or not, or is this
question unanswerable for lack of sufficient data??

Or will this be a case of "ask two experts, get three opinions??" :-)

Thanks, Roger Mills

(A similar problem-- the status of the Formosan languages-- led to a
redefinition of "Proto Austronesian", to the extent that a form, no matter
how widely attested, cannot be considered PAN unless there is also a
Formosan witness. I don't think IE studies have adopted such a strict
rule.)