http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/09/jagged-alliance-3-due-in-2011-from-bitcomposer/
Huzzah! Lets hope it wont suck seeing how its by a different developer.

Great news! There's some hope left!
But bitComposer? They're publishers right? Let's hope the devs bitComposer picks will have their heads straight.
I mean, Russians are great programmers, but their games lack polish, remember that Hired Guns [that game was to be JA3!] travesty? Ugh.. ;)
Oh, and that horrible idea to make a JA without turns? G'ah!
Well, 2011 is better then DNF i guess. ;) So there's something worth living for anyway!;>
[yeah, i'm a jagged nut, which might be a poor choice of words]

I'll believe it when it is out. This is the third developer change, and from all I've heard of the previous attempts neither were anywhere near the level of JA2. Problem with Jagged Alliance really is that it has been so long and that the people that made Jagged Alliance what it is have long since been dispersed or left the industry. Including the original publishers.

I wonder if I'll get around to completing JA2 and JA2 UB before it's released? :P

That's not really true. Given that what later turned into "Hired Guns" wasn't considered good enough by the IP holders, and that JA3 was started over with a different developer, tells me that what we got as "Hired Guns" is not anywhere near what was planned for JA3.
That "Hired Guns" developers got dropped is what give hope, but that they got so far along in developing a game before quality control stepped in doesn't really instil confidence. That years after the second attempt at getting JA3 out there's yet another developer change doesn't really sound all that great, either.
Edit: That Strategy First finally sold the license is probably good news, though. At least there's hope that there'll be some actual realistic chance of funding going all the way.

And you wonder why they're ignoring its existence completely?

My hopes for JA3 are already astronomical, despite having very little information to go on.
I would hope that they look at some of the improvements that the 1.13 modders and other groups have made.
I'm currently on a playthrough of JA2 1.13, and while its awesome, I'd love to see a sequel.

So, yet another restart. I'll be astounded if this game ever actually sees the light of day. And by the time it does (if it ever happens), any name recognition that might have existed for the license will have been dead and buried for eons.

Thank goodness Bethesda didn't set its sights on the JA franchise.
I'd rather have NO JA than a horrible JA, or a non-turn based JA.

Since I got JA2 last Christmas I've been playing it on 1.13 non-stop. Only issue I got is AK-47's are more accurate than M4 Bushmasters and AEK-973's, but I think that is balancing of price based off weapon range. Still, pricing is a major issue for me.
Otherwise JA2 1.13 has kept me playing non-stop. When a game franchise goes down like JA2 did and they try to re-make it, well look at XCom and it's spiritual successor that ended up being complete shit. As pointed out above Fallout 3 and Bethesda are proof different companies can do more harm than good, and I'd rather play JA2 than a totally re-made JA3 that's not as good or the same.

Well, we can always hope for the 1.13 community to do some... Magic! ;P

Will this affect the JA games here I wonder?

It's been longer overdue than due.
The last demo being from 2007 if memory serves me right.
Best part of that demo was the use of the JA series soundtrack.
bitComposer's article says they acquired the full IP rights to the series.
There's some hope they'll do something good.
It's a German company and JA2 was quite popular in Germany.
It was 1 of the 1st countries in Europe where JA2:UB was released.
If I remember correctly it was also one of the very few European countries where JA2:Wildfire was released.
Germany was also 1 of the 1st European countries to have a localized version.

Just think how wonderfull Jagged Alliance would look on Oblivion/Fallout 3 engine in all it's 1st/3rd person glory! ;) :P